DWP hands hundreds of millions more to firms linked to claimant deaths… but not Atos

The government has awarded five-year disability assessment contracts worth more than £560 million to the outsourcing giant Capita, on the same day that a safeguarding review linked the company to the death of a young disabled mum.

Last week, the safeguarding review into the death of Philippa Day in October 2019 found the actions of Capita had had a “profound impact” on the 27-year-old and caused her “debilitating anxiety”, thanks to systemic problems in the personal independence payment (PIP) assessment system.

A coroner later found that flaws in the PIP system – many of them due to Capita’s actions – were “the predominant factor and the only acute factor” that led to Philippa taking her own life.

Also on the same day, 25 May, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) raised concernsabout two serious data protection breacheslinked to Capita, one following a cyber-attack and the other relating to allegations that it left data unsecured online.

Capita also failed to meet DWP’s target for the proportion of assessment reports considered to be of an acceptable quality in November last year, more than nine years after it started providing PIP assessments.

Capita has also been linked previously to widespread reports of dishonesty by its healthcare professionals while assessing PIP claimants . . .