No DWP decision on £2.8 billion assessment contracts, 21 months on
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has still not decided which companies will be paid a share of £2.8 billion to carry out health and disability benefit assessments, nearly two years after it first published information about the contracts.
The award of the five-year contracts – spread across five areas of the UK – could see discredited outsourcing giants like Atos, Capita and Maximus carrying out both work capability assessments (WCAs) and personal independence payment (PIP) assessments*.
The new system of carrying out assessments is supposed to go live in August, just seven months away.
The only information DWP has released about progress in awarding the contracts is that its civil servants are still evaluating rival tenders.
DWP first published information about the process in April 2021 in a “prior information notice”, but its freedom of information team has now told Disability News Service (DNS) that the process of awarding the contracts is “at the evaluation/moderation stage (PDF)”.
When they are awarded, the contracts will see a single supplier providing both WCAs and PIP assessments in each of the five areas.
This could mean Atos once again carrying out WCAs, eight years after it withdrew from the contract following years of negative publicity and links between its actions and the deaths of disabled claimants.
Currently, WCAs are carried out by Maximus, while PIP assessments are carried out by Atos and Capita.
All three providers have been closely linked to the deaths of claimants over the last decade.
Their failings have been exposed through research and direct action by grassroots groups of disabled people, inquiries by parliamentary committees, concerns raised by individual MPs, the release of government statistics, television documentaries, and a lengthy investigation into the PIP assessment practices of Atos and Capita by DNS.
Atos, Maximus and Capita have previously declined to say if they are bidding for any of the contracts.
DWP’s 2021 green paper Shaping Future Support discussed plans to create what it called an “integrated health assessment service”, which would bring the two assessments onto a single digital system.
The prior information notice said the plan to “provide functional health assessments through a single supplier in each geographical lot” was part of DWP’s “long term plans” to develop an integrated health assessment service.
But there have been concerns that moving to a single assessment supplier in each part of the country could make it easier for ministers to merge PIP with out-of-work disability benefits (employment and support allowance, and the disability-related aspects of universal credit), a possibility raised in the green paper.
A DWP spokesperson declined to say why the process was taking so long, and whether ministers were concerned that the delay would mean it would not be able to start the new assessment system in August as planned.
Meanwhile, DWP has announced details of when payments to help with the cost-of-living crisis will be made to benefit claimants through 2023 and into spring 2024.
There will be a total of £900 for those on means-tested benefits, paid in three instalments of about £300 each in spring 2023, autumn 2023 and spring 2024; a £300 pensioner payment in winter 2023-24; and a £150 payment for those on disability benefits this summer.
Those eligible will be paid automatically, with no need to apply for the payments.
*The Scottish government will continue to take responsibility for its replacement for PIP, adult disability payment
5 January 2023
Government blanks UN’s call to assess overall impact of cuts… again
The government is ignoring a call from disabled human rights experts from the UN to assess the overall impact of cuts and reforms to disabled people’s support, six years after being told to do so in a ground-breaking report.
The UN committee concluded in November 2016 that the UK government was guilty of “grave” and “systematic” violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Most of the breaches were caused by policies introduced by Conservative ministers at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) between 2010 and 2015.
One key recommendation made by the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities through its inquiry was for the UK government to carry out a “cumulative impact assessment” of how future welfare reforms affect disabled people’s right to support.
But in its latest annual report on how it is responding to the committee’s recommendations, the government has yet again ignored the call for such an assessment.
Grassroots groups of disabled people like WOWcampaign, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and Pat’s Petition have repeatedly called for a cumulative impact assessment over the last decade.
But in response to that recommendation, the government says it relies instead on the Equality Act’s public sector equality duty, which merely sets a legal duty on public bodies to “consider” the impact of their policies on disabled people.
The 2022 annual report was published quietly this week, and it shows the government is still ignoring key recommendations made by the committee, six years after the UN report was first released.
The government has continued to reject the committee’s first recommendation from 2016, to carry out a cumulative impact assessment of all the cuts and reforms made to disabled people’s support by the 2010 coalition government.
In its response, it refers again to the public sector equality duty.
The report also offers no evidence that it has taken any action to combat the “negative and discriminatory stereotypes and prejudices” faced by disabled people who claim benefits, another of the report’s recommendations.
The committee’s 2016 report found disabled people had been “regularly portrayed negatively as being dependent or making a living out of benefits, committing fraud as benefit claimants, being lazy and putting a burden on taxpayers”.
But although the government’s latest response points to action it has taken around hate crime, bullying in schools, online safety, and “public understanding of autism”, there is no mention of any action it has taken to address attacks on disabled people who claim benefits.
Bob Ellard, a member of DPAC’s national steering group, said: “A new year but the same UK government showing the same contempt for disabled people.
“They won’t follow the UN recommendations and assess the impact of their policies, because they know the answer would reveal the scale of the financial, social and human rights-based oppression of their own disabled citizens.
“And they won’t stop demonising disabled people, as that is what provides the smokescreen that enables them to continue oppressing us.”
The Disability Unit had failed to explain by noon today (Thursday) why the government has refused to take the action recommended by the committee on cumulative impact assessments and the discriminatory portrayal of benefit claimants.
But the minister for disabled people, Tom Pursglove, told MPs in a written statement last month that the government’s response “demonstrates how we are implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and showcases positive action taking place across the UK to support disabled people”.
He said the report showed the government had “implemented numerous policies and programmes to tackle the barriers faced by disabled people relevant to the articles examined by the inquiry”.
The government’s immediate response to the inquiry in 2016 was to reject all 11 of the committee’s recommendations, attempt to undermine the report, and claim that the UK was a “recognised world leader in disabled rights and equality”.
But the UN committee later told the government to complete an annual report on its progress in implementing its recommendations.
The 2016 report was the result of the first high-level inquiry to be carried out by the committee and followed years of research and lobbying by DPAC.
Among the cuts and reforms introduced by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition that led DPAC to approach the UN committee were cuts to social care, the impact of the work capability assessment – linked by public health experts from the Universities of Liverpool and Oxford to hundreds of suicides between 2010 and 2013 – the introduction of personal independence payment and consequent cuts to support, and the increased use of benefit sanctions and the resulting deaths of claimants.
The following year, during a wider examination of the UK’s progress in implementing the convention, the committee said it was “deeply concerned” that the UK government still believed it was a “champion of human rights”, with its chair warning that its cuts to disabled people’s support had caused a “human catastrophe”.
5 January 2023
Complaints about DWP shot up by 70 per cent last year, says watchdog
Unresolved complaints about the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) shot up by nearly 70 per cent last year, according to an official report.
The Independent Case Examiner (ICE) Joanna Wallace says in her annual report that her office is continuing to work with DWP “to understand what is driving this increase in unresolved complaints being brought to us”.
She adds: “Aside from the impact of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign, my office has not experienced referrals or intake at this level for at least the last decade.”
For a complaint to be examined by ICE it must be about DWP service failure and the claimant must have had a final response to their complaint from DWP within the last six months.
In all, 1,708 complaints against DWP were accepted for examination by ICE in 2021-22, compared with 1,013 the previous year (PDF).
The number of complaints about disability benefits (mostly personal independence payment) that were accepted by ICE in 2021-22 also rose sharply, from 76 to 104, an increase of more than a third (37 per cent).
The proportion of disability benefits complaints partially or totally upheld rose from 63 per cent to 69 per cent from 2020-21 to 2021-22.
And the number of complaints accepted about working-age benefits like universal credit and employment and support allowance rose by 38 per cent, from 315 to 436.
ICE’s annual report was released days after DWP revealed that the average time taken for a DWP complaint even to be allocated to an ICE investigator was now 50 weeks, following the sharp increase in complaints.
Wallace says in her report: “It is already a concern that cases with my office take far longer to be brought into investigation than I am happy with, and a sustained increase in cases coming to us such as we have seen this year, will only make that position worse.”
There is also a sharp increase in complaints compared with the last pre-pandemic year, 2019-20 (PDF).
Compared with 2019-20, the overall number of complaints accepted by ICE rose from 1,132 to 1,708 in 2021-22 (an increase of 51 per cent) and the number of complaints about disability benefits accepted by ICE for examination rose from 71 to 104 (an increase of 46 per cent) in two years.
A DWP spokesperson declined to explain why the department believed the number of complaints had risen so sharply.
But she said in a statement: “We support millions of people each year so they get the help and service to which they are entitled.
“The vast majority of complaints are handled by DWP, with only a small proportion escalating to the Independent Case Examiner which provides an independent avenue for customers.”
One case examined by ICE in 2021-22 related to P, a claimant whose disability living allowance and employment and support allowance (ESA) were both stopped after they failed to attend a personal independence payment assessment.
DWP stopped paying their ESA entirely for nine months, after which ESA was reinstated, but when P failed to attend a work capability assessment their ESA was disallowed again without even telling them that had been done.
ICE found there was no mental health marker on P’s file, even though they had a “severe mental health condition”.
If a mental health marker had been in place, DWP should have arranged a home visit to P before stopping their ESA.
ICE recommended a payment of £800 to P “in recognition of the hardship and injustice of not having their claims dealt with properly”.
The P case suggests DWP has failed to learn the lessons from past deaths linked to its assessment systems, including those of Philippa Day, who died in October 2019; Jodey Whiting, who died in February 2017; and Errol Graham, who died in the spring or early summer of 2018.
Among other cases examined by ICE in 2021-22 was a complaint by M, who was visually-impaired with a brain injury, and had previously made it clear that they were unable to respond to written correspondence.
But DWP closed M’s personal independence payment and employment and support allowance claims when they failed to respond to two forms sent in the post.
DWP also refused to explore possible alternative formats when M rang to complain.
ICE recommended that DWP make a “consolatory payment” of £1,500 to M.
5 January 2023
Removing guards and cutting rail staff will put lives at risk, minister is warned
Campaigners have warned transport secretary Mark Harper that “discriminatory” plans to remove guards from trains, cut staff and close ticket offices will prevent many disabled passengers travelling on the rail network and put lives at risk.
The National Federation of the Blind of the UK (NFBUK) issued the warning to Harper – a former minister for disabled people – as it delivered a petition now backed by more than 90 organisations to his constituency office in Cinderford, Gloucestershire.
Reports have suggested that the government’s rail reforms are likely to see about four-fifths of ticket offices closing, while campaigners led by The Association of British Commuters (ABC) have called on the Equality and Human Rights Commission to take “urgent action” on railway staffing.
NFBUK said the government’s proposals were “unacceptable, unsafe and unworkable”.
Organisations backing the petition include disabled and older people’s organisations, access groups and organisations representing blind and visually-impaired people.
One of Harper’s constituents, Bill Waddell, who helped deliver the petition, said he wanted Harper to “leave the guards on the trains and leave the ticket offices in the stations”.
He said: “The ticket offices are important because I can’t use a computer and I can’t use a ticket machine.”
NFBUK’s petition calls for all ticket offices to remain open; all staffed stations to maintain a safe level of staffing at all times; all trains to have guards; and all unstaffed stations to become staffed at all times.
Kevin Greenan, from Middleton, an NFBUK member, was filmed on Boxing Day at Mills Hill station in Greater Manchester, highlighting the safety dangers of removing guards from trains.
He said that Harper’s plans were “absolutely disgraceful and despicable”, and he added: “How dare you decide who can and who cannot travel.
“The guards on the trains, I’ve said over and over again, are vital.”
Greenan can currently use Mills Hill, but if guards were removed from trains he would be unable to do so.
He said: “I wouldn’t know where the train was coming from or going to and sometimes the station announcements aren’t very clear because they are automated.
“And also with it being an unmanned station, there is nobody here I can ask, so it’s imperative for me that guards are available on trains at all times, otherwise this station would become virtually inaccessible for me.”
He said that a guard-free train and an unstaffed station would also put him “at the mercy of the gap” between the platform and the train.
He added: “If I was to miss my step then I am afraid it could be curtains. That’s how important the guard’s duty is and the guard’s necessity is.
“We must have guards at all times.”
Sarah Leadbetter, NFBUK’s national campaigns officer, said lives would be at risk if the government went ahead with its plans.
Only a few days ago, a blind friend of hers was left badly bruised when she slipped between a train and the platform at an unstaffed station and had to be grabbed by another passenger before she fell onto the tracks.
Leadbetter said she was “very concerned” that there would be fatal accidents on station platforms if the government’s cuts and reforms went ahead.
She said the “disgusting and disgraceful” plans to remove guards from trains and shut ticket offices were aimed at cutting costs and would mean disabled and older people and others who need assistance would “just totally and utterly disappear”.
She said: “If there are no staff at ticket offices and no guards on trains, how am I supposed to travel safely without ramps to get on and off the train safely, with no guidance to seats and with no assistance to ensure I make my train connections?
“I simply would not be able to travel on the trains anymore. I do not think anybody has really thought through the implications these proposed cuts will have on any passengers needing assistance to travel.”
NFBUK says in the petition: “All trains need guards, all stations need ticket offices, and all stations need to be staffed.
“Safety, security and accessibility have to underpin all train travel in the UK and we will accept no compromise on these issues.”
The petition adds: “Removing staff from manned stations and removing guards from trains will make train journeys unsafe and very stressful for blind, visually impaired, disabled and vulnerable train passengers.
“Your proposals to remove guards, close ticket offices down and reduce staffing are not safe and they are inherently discriminatory in nature, preventing those people who need face to face customer services and assistance to get on and off trains from travelling on trains.”
A DfT spokesperson said in a statement: “The safety and security of all rail passengers will always be top priority on our railways.
“We are working with industry to improve and modernise the passenger experience by moving staff out from behind ticket offices and onto stations to provide more face-to-face help and assistance.
“While driver only operation trains have run safely for many years – and are approved by the Office of Rail and Road – our proposed reforms will bolster safety, giving operators greater flexibility to deploy staff to assist those who need it the most.”
Disabled people, accessibility experts and campaigners have repeatedly warned of the “escalating human rights crisis” for disabled passengers caused by staffing issues across the rail network.
A leading expert on accessible transport quit his role as a government adviser in October after accusing ministers of backing policies on de-staffing the rail network that discriminate against disabled rail passengers.
Matthew Smith, a key member of the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC), told the government that its already discriminatory staffing policies looked set to get “drastically worse” if it went ahead with secret plans for mass ticket office closures.
He said in his resignation letter that DPTAC had repeatedly warned the Department for Transport about the “toxic combination of driver-only trains and unstaffed stations” and urged it to secure legal advice.
Research published by ABC in November showed that six train companies were discriminating against disabled passengers at nearly 300 rail stations across the south-east of England.
The research showed that c2c (which runs between London and Southend), Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Govia Thameslink Railway, Great Western Railway and Southeastern were all regularly denying “turn up and go” services to those who needed boarding assistance.
5 January 2023
Partners will use £20 million research centre to close ‘transport accessibility gap’
Partners in a ground-breaking new research centre aim to develop solutions that will close the “transport accessibility gap” faced by disabled people, with the help of £20 million in funding.
A disabled-led research organisation, the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC)*, is one of the partners, led by Coventry University, that will receive the funding to develop and run a new Evidence Centre for Inclusive Transport (ECIT).
ECIT, which is expected to launch early this year, aims to improve the accessibility and reliability of road, rail and air transport for disabled people, and transform the sector’s understanding of disabled people’s experiences of transport, through carrying out research and developing accessible transport solutions.
RiDC, which specialises in inclusive research involving disabled consumers, will play a key role in ensuring that disabled people are at the heart of the centre’s work and shape “accessible transport solutions”.
This will include developing and managing a new Community for Accessible Transport, a pan-impairment panel of disabled people which will help set the centre’s agenda by providing evidence and insight through surveys, focus groups, testing, and research design.
RiDC already has a panel of more than 3,500 disabled and older consumers, the biggest pan-impairment panel in the UK.
RiDC, Coventry University, the charity Designability, innovation accelerator Connected Places Catapult, cross-party thinktank Policy Connect and engineering consultancy WSP UK have been awarded £20 million over seven years by the charity Motability** to develop and run ECIT.
Phil Friend, RiDC’s chair, said: “RiDC has a 50-year history in improving the consumer experience of disabled people and we are thrilled to be part of this consortium.”
He said RiDC would be “objective, independent and driven by the evidence” in its work on ECIT.
He said: “Our role is to ensure that it is disabled people themselves who express what’s needed, so we avoid ‘reinventing a bad wheel’ – as one of our panel commented.
“The time is ripe, and we look forward to working on an initiative that we hope will improve the lives of the UK’s 14 million disabled people exponentially.”
Gordon McCullough, RiDC’s chief executive, said the funding would make a “substantial” difference to the organisation.
He said: “It will allow us to allocate resources over an extended period to really engage, listen to and include disabled people in gathering evidence and insights into how transport can be made more accessible.”
Research by Motability (PDF) has found that disabled people make an average of 38 per cent fewer trips than non-disabled people, with no reduction in this gap over the past decade.
Motability’s analysis shows that completely closing this gap for disabled people in the UK would deliver benefits worth about £72 billion a year.
Paul Herriotts, professor of transport design at Coventry University’s Centre for Future Transport and Cities, said: “We recognise the daily challenges still faced by disabled people in accessing transport in the UK; whilst this is a complex issue, it largely stems from today’s transport simply not being appropriate for the needs of disabled people.
“Research is needed to better understand disabled people’s lived experiences, needs, and wants in relation to transport.
“The evidence centre will house and deliver future research – with this much-needed new approach: the generous funding from Motability enables us to undertake innovative applied research that puts disabled people at the heart of the process.
“We will look to disabled people to help guide and inform our activities and to help shape the future of public and private transport in the UK.”
Barry Le Grys, Motability’s chief executive, said the organisations funded to deliver the evidence centre would “bring their wealth of experience and expertise in transport design and the experiences of disabled people to help us to create longer-term solutions in travel accessibility”.
He said: “We know that being unable to make the journeys they want or need to, has a huge impact on disabled people’s daily lives; from getting a job, to attending medical appointments, to seeing friends and family.
“While some solutions exist to help make transport accessible, the fact that the accessibility gap hasn’t improved in a decade shows that much more needs to be done.”
*More than 80 per cent of RiDC’s trustees identify as disabled people
**Motability, which oversees the company that runs the disabled people’s car scheme, is a Disability News Service subscriber
5 January 2023
Future of disabled-led motoring charity at risk, as it celebrates 100th anniversary
By Tom McDonough
A disabled people’s motoring organisation has warned its future is at risk, even as it has been celebrating its 100th anniversary.
Disabled Motoring UK (DMUK) is set for a “crucial” board meeting on 23 February where trustees will discuss its future.
Margaret Oldham, DMUK’s chair, told Disability News Service yesterday (Wednesday) that its situation was “fairly serious”.
She said: “We are in a difficult financial situation, and have to find some solutions.”
Over the last 100 years, DMUK has campaigned successfully for driving licenses for disabled people and the creation of the blue badge and Motability schemes, and for exemptions from vehicle excise duties, VAT on some adapted vehicles and congestion charges for disabled motorists.
But it now fears that the support it provides, and its campaigning work, are viewed as less important than services offered by other charities.
DMUK said the “significant challenges” created by the transition to electric vehicles – and the ongoing issues around parking, blue badges, disability benefits and smart motorways – meant it had a vital role to play.
One option is to put together a funding bid to help disabled people – already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis – in the move towards electric vehicles, which Oldham said was a “big issue” for DMUK’s 16,000 members.
She said: “Like most charities, we have found funding very difficult over the past few years.
“People are supporting so many desperate charities like those helping Ukraine, or mental health charities, cancer charities or Children in Need, that DMUK is not seen as being vital to support.
“But with the importance of electric vehicles at the moment, plus the everlasting issues we face on parking, blue badges, disability benefits, smart motorways and such like, we do not want to have to close.”
She said DMUK has had an “immense” influence over the last 100 years, enabling disabled people to be mobile, “which in many cases has enabled employment, independence and enjoyment”.
DMUK was created in 2011, having changed its name from Mobilise, which itself was formed in 2005 by a merger between the Disabled Drivers’ Motor Club (DDMC) and the Disabled Drivers’ Association (DDA).
DDMC was formed in 1922 by a group of amputee First World War veterans, and it focussed initially on recreational driving and vehicle testing before taking on a more direct campaigning role, winning the right for disabled people to hold a driving licence in the 1930s.
DDA was originally formed in 1948 as the Invalid Tricycle Association (ITA), and as motorised “trikes” were phased out in favour of minicars and other vehicle adaptations became possible, ITA widened its remit and changed its name to the Disabled Drivers’ Association in 1963.
DMUK has concentrated in recent years on issues such as the proper enforcement of the blue badge scheme, accessible parking standards and the transition to electric vehicles and clean air zones.
It is focussing significant resources on supporting disabled people in the transition to electric vehicles, with the government banning the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030 onwards as part of its effort to cut carbon emissions and combat the global heating emergency.
DMUK says the transition will create significant challenges for disabled motorists because of the high cost of purchasing electric vehicles and the inaccessibility of many electric charge points.
It provides practical advice and information on matters such as vehicle choice while also campaigning on the independent use of charging equipment and the lack of accessible charge points.
Meanwhile, abuse of blue badges and accessible parking bays triggers more complaints by DMUK members than any other motoring issue.
Heidi Turner, DMUK’s communications and campaigns director, said: “People who commit these offences are robbing genuine blue badge holders of their independence by taking up a parking space they aren’t entitled to use.
“Proper management and enforcement by parking operators and local authorities is vital in protecting the scheme for genuine users.”
This news story is part of an ongoing Disability News Service series that highlights the vital work of the UK’s disabled people’s organisations
5 January 2023
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
Disabled people in the UK are much more likely to struggle to heat their homes and cut back on food this winter, according to a report highlighting “massive” income gaps amid the cost-of-living squeeze. Research from the Resolution Foundation found disabled people had an available amount to spend that was about 44 per cent lower than that of other working-age adults, exposing them hugely to the rising cost of essentials. And it said almost half (48 per cent) of disabled adults said they had to cut back on energy use this winter, compared with almost one-third of non-disabled people: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/04/disabled-people-cost-of-living-crisis-energy-use-food-resolution-foundation
Care workers are taking as little as three minutes to help vulnerable people in their own homes, the social care ombudsman has found, after discovering a council was allocating extremely short visits to hundreds of people. Amid chronic staff shortages and rising unmet care needs nationwide, a homecare worker commissioned by Warrington borough council sometimes stayed for just three minutes, despite the family paying for the full visit. The council was found to have allocated 15-minute care calls to more than 300 people in the region, despite national guidance stressing that these were “not usually appropriate”: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/05/council-providing-three-minute-care-visits-to-vulnerable-finds-ombudsman
The parents of a disabled 11-year-old boy, who requires constant 24-hour medical attention at home, have been told the NHS can no longer guarantee overnight nursing support for him because they cannot properly heat their house. Leah and Troy Van Keogh were told by their local health board that unless they heated and lit their home sufficiently to ensure a “suitable working environment”, its nurses were under no obligation to fulfil a seven-nights-a-week at-home care package for their son, Marley. The Van Keoghs said they could no longer afford to heat their home and run the electrical medical equipment needed to keep Marley alive: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/04/disabled-boy-loses-overnight-nhs-care-because-parents-cannot-afford-heating?CMP=share_btn_tw
A blind man who uses taxis and private hire vehicles to get to work says he and his guide dog have been refused trips by some drivers over 30 times. Stephen Anderson, who works as an organist at a London church, has been filming the incidents involving him and his dog Barney and sending them to Transport for London. His actions have so far seen a dozen successful prosecutions: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64119100
5 January 2023
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
