The PIP Files: DWP documents show ‘absolutely shocking’ failure on further evidence

Last Updated: February 10, 2018By

Outsourcing companies have been failing to request vital evidence from GPs and social workers that would help disabled people secure the benefits they are entitled to, confidential Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) documents have revealed.

The “absolutely shocking” reports, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that Atos and Capita contacted health and social care professionals to ask for information far less often than the government estimated would be needed.

DWP documents drawn up in May 2012, before the award of the contracts to deliver personal independence payment (PIP) assessments, show the department expected its contractors would need to request further evidence (also known as further medical evidence) in about half of all cases (50 per cent).

But at one stage, in June and July 2016, Capita was seeking further information from GPs, consultants or social workers in fewer than one in every 50 PIP claims (less than two per cent of cases).

During June 2016, Capita sought further evidence for just 380 of the 21,554 PIP assessments it dealt with.

Information released to SNP’s Drew Hendry last week has highlighted further concerns that suggest the problem may even have worsened last year.

Sarah Newton (pictured), the minister for disabled people, admitted in a written parliamentary response to Hendry that the total number of separate requests for further evidence by Capita had plunged from more than 94,000 in 2015, to about 48,000 in 2016, and then to less than 21,000 in the whole of 2017.

Source: The PIP Files: DWP documents show ‘absolutely shocking’ failure on further evidence


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5 Comments

  1. Roland Laycock February 10, 2018 at 7:37 pm - Reply

    It will go under the carpet with the rest the Tories don’t care a toss, its time for civil disobedience the death rate is sick and no one brought to book its nothing but genocide

  2. JohnDee February 10, 2018 at 8:27 pm - Reply

    I have been attending an Outpatient Hepatic Clinic that has been monitoring the slow progression of my life-threatening viral liver disease for the last eleven years.

    Having read my ESA50 (ESA application) form advice concerning gathering as much evidence from healthcare professionals – I therefore asked my Specialist Hepatic Nurse if she would be kind enough to compose a short health status memo concerning my FibroScan® report tests that indicated a dangerous acceleration in the progression of scar tissue in my liver and that this was a debilitating and progressive late-stage condition. She happily agreed to do this for me.

    However, a short time later I received a letter saying that she had been instructed by her superiors ” … not to get involved …” and suggested that I get a report ” … from your previous healthcare providers …” – from the NHS team that had provided me with 48 weeks of unsuccessful chemotherapy more than a decade previously!

    I had already paid two lots of £25 NHS document fees to the hospital for copies of letters and medical test reports, but that didn’t seem to contain the FibroScan® test reports!

    So when I went to my PIP WCA and showed the assessor a combined file of about an inch thick of A4 sheets, she said something like “…Oh, that’s an awful lot of pages, there. Let me pick a few …” and proceeded to photocopy about 10 or 20 pages, that nevertheless seems to have disappeared from my PIP appeal evidence bundle! So that’s all right then?

    ‘Spose you can’t guess how many PIP points I received, NOT?

  3. hugosmum70 February 10, 2018 at 9:45 pm - Reply

    are we surprised at this? i dont think so. i certainly arent.

  4. jeffrey davies February 11, 2018 at 7:41 am - Reply

    33pounds or so for medical notes it seems these cowboys are bandits wanting to keep all their government monies

  5. loonytoonz February 11, 2018 at 6:24 pm - Reply

    Am I surprised? NO.
    Am I shocked the figures are that low? YES. Though thinking about it, I guess I’m actually just as shocked that they have bothered doing their job properly on those few!
    I know for a fact, they ignored further evidence I sent in, until I questioned it, then low and behold I quickly changed from no award to standard care, for 4 yrs.
    When is it going to embarrass this government into stopping this farce, dealing with their mess, recoup the obscene amounts of money wasted on these incompetent, greedy, assessment firms and treat us with a modicum of decency??
    Our children are the future of this country,they will soon be grown up and will remember for ever the government that has caused all of this

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