Page 45 - Reforming Benefits Decision-Making -(updated - August 2021)

2.47 Nevertheless, the DWP has spent vast sums of money on the assessment
provider contracts and they have been repeatedly extended. Up to March
2017, Maximus had been paid £291 million to carry out ESA assessments.
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Atos and Capita, had received a combined total of £678 million. Maximus
commenced its three-year contract in 2015 which has subsequently been
extended three times. The PIP contracts began in 2012, with service
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delivery commencing in 2013 and were also originally due to finish in 2018.
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They too have been extended three times. The latest extension came in July
last year, when it was announced that the contracts of all three providers of
WCA and PIP assessments would be extended for up to two years as the
pandemic meant that it would not be possible to launch a procurement process
for new contracts from August 2021 as originally intended.
110
2.48 During the Scottish Government’s consultations to inform the design of the
devolved benefits system many individuals raised concerns about the
compatibility of the profit motives of private companies with a rights-based
social security system. As a result, the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018
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prohibits assessments being carried out by individuals employed by private
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companies. We agree.
2.49 Outsourcing reduces transparency. Private companies are not required to be
transparent in the same way as public bodies. They are not subject to the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the DWP can rely on the
‘commercial interests’ exemptions to avoid disclosing information about them

107 Work and Pensions Committee, PIP and ESA assessments: Seventh Report (see n. 11 above) para
77.
108 To early 2020 and then again to July 2021. Ibid, para 75.
109 Gill Plimer, ‘Capita set to win contract extension running disability tests’ (Financial Times, 5 June
2018).
110 DWP ‘Health Transformation Programme update UIN HCWS353' (9 July 2020).
111 Scottish Parliament, ‘Meeting of the Parliament 7 September 2017’ (7 September 2017).
112 Social Security (Scotland) Act, s.12.

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