Disability benefit tests have doubled in cost, says watchdog

[dutchman]

Disability benefit assessments have doubled in cost to £579m a year but targets are still being missed, the National Audit Office has said.



The spending watchdog found the quality of the tests was also not improving despite more being done face-to-face.

Labour MP Meg Hillier, who chairs the public accounts committee, said the cost was "staggering" and sick and disabled people needed "a better deal".

Health assessments for Employment and Support Allowance are carried out to assess people's capability for work.

They were brought in to reduce the number of claimants but the department has constantly struggled with delays and controversy with disability campaigners claiming they have led to rising suicide and depression rates.

Private provider Atos quit its contract in 2014 and was replaced last year by US firm Maximus.

The new contract requires an increased number of face-to-face assessments - with more staff needed to carry them out.

But the NAO said "recent performance shows the department [DWP] has not tackled - and may even have exacerbated" problems over waiting times and targets, and expected savings to the welfare budget had been reduced from £1.1bn over the next three years to £400m.

Key findings in the report said:

• There was still an estimated backlog of 280,000 ESA assessments in August 2015 with an estimated 23-week wait for claimants - down from 29 weeks
  
• There had been a struggle to recruit enough specialist medical staff to meet demand, while rising salaries had contributed to a 65% rise in the average cost of each assessment - from £115 to £190
  
• At least £76m of taxpayers' money had also been wasted by the failure to get a new IT system up and running - more than two years after it was supposed to be in place

Despite increasing the size of its performance management team, the DWP "has not yet achieved value for money", the report said, "Overall it now expects to pay more for assessments, and is still not achieving volume and assessment report quality targets."

The head of the NAO, Amyas Morse, said the DWP had "addressed some of its immediate operational issues in managing contracted-out health and disability assessments".

But he said the government needed to "take action to break a perpetuating cycle of optimistic targets, contractual underperformance and costly recovery".

Shadow minister for disabled people, Debbie Abrahams, said the report exposed a "shambles", adding "too many disabled people have been badly let down by these assessments".

And Dan Scorer, head of policy at the charity Mencap, said "people with a learning disability who rely on the support from benefits are still suffering from a system that fails to help the people it is designed for".

[rebbonk]

A regime persued vigorously by IDS has failed. Well, what a surprise"!

[dutchman]

According to The Guardian the increased costs have wiped out all the savings from cutting benefits:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... ility-cuts

However the purpose of the cuts was never to save money, it was always to punish people who didn't have a job. (Likewise the Bedroom Tax). That's why Tory backbenchers cheered when the cuts were first announced in the House of Commons.

[rebbonk]

We are vilifying and demonising those that for whatever reason don't have a job. Once again, it's the selfish, me, me, me, "I'm alright jack, ring the bell I'm on the bus" attitude.

Many have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, many more will do so: there are many who are ill: there are some who are disabled: and sure, there are a few scroungers, but these are in the minority. What we are seeing is a Tory supported, media generated witch hunt, that many refuse to see through.

A society is judged by how it looks after its weak and sick, people need to realise that they could be unemployed next! Your only security is the length of your period of notice.