SCANDALOUS! "The DWP just revealed the eye-watering millions it paid out to private companies" [don't forget the highly questionable "Prospects Workfair"] - JULY 26TH, 2018 + archive

The DWP just revealed the eye-watering millions it paid out to private companies

JULY 26TH, 2018  STEVE TOPPLE TRENDING, UK

https://spkt.io/a/98811On Thursday 26 July, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed the amount it paid out in June to private contractors. It’s enough to make your eyes water.

The DWP: how much?

Within the DWP figures, three main companies stood out.

• Atos, when trading as Independent Assessment Services, runs assessments for Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
• Maximus, sometimes known in this context as the Centre for Health and Disability Assessments, operates the Work Capability Assessment (WCA).
• G4S, which runs security at DWP Jobcentres.

The three providers received in total just under £50m from the DWP in June alone. Broken down:

• Atos – £18,994,559 to three different subsidiaries: Atos IT Services UK Ltd Trading as Independent Assessment Services, Atos IT Services UK Ltd and Atos Origin IT Services UK Ltd.
• Maximus – £15,738,709.
• G4S – £14,628,560 to three different subsidiaries: G4S Secure Solutions UK Ltd-2WM, G4S Ltd and G4S Regional Management UK & I Ltd.

But each of these companies is as notorious as the other.

Mired in controversy 

As The Canary documented, the so-called ‘DWP Kill Yourself’ scandal allegedly involved Atos assessors asking claimants ‘why they hadn’t killed themselves, yet’. Claimants have alleged that its assessors have produced “dishonest” reports about them. The firm has even been accused of “misleading” the government. But in a controversial move, the government extended Atos’s contract by two years in June.
Maximus’s reputation isn’t much better, with the firm missing DWP targets and also allegedly being involved in the ‘Kill Yourself’ scandal. Both Atos and Maximus denied any wrongdoing in the ‘Kill Yourself’ scandal.
Meanwhile, G4S has a reputation that precedes it. From alleged abuse in immigration detention centres it runs to allegations of fraud over how it charged the government for tagging offenders, the company is often mired in controversy.

Money for old rope

The news of the millions the DWP has paid out left some on Twitter unimpressed:

Steve Topple

✔@MrTopple

 · 23h

GUESS HOW MUCH THE #DWP PAID OUT TO ATOS IN JUNE...???

Just under £19m.
In one month.
No, really. pic.twitter.com/NbJ5ipWMVS

Just another 'loony leftie' snowflake@notquite_anon

fuck.

10:51 - 26 Jul 2018

• See Just another 'loony leftie' snowflake's other Tweets

Steve Topple

✔@MrTopple

 · 23h

GUESS HOW MUCH THE #DWP PAID OUT TO ATOS IN JUNE...???

Just under £19m.
In one month.
No, really. pic.twitter.com/NbJ5ipWMVS

Victoria #NHSLove @VickyVicsmi

10:51 - 26 Jul 2018

• 1
• See Victoria #NHSLove 's other Tweets

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Steve Topple

✔@MrTopple

 · 23h

GUESS HOW MUCH THE #DWP PAID OUT TO ATOS IN JUNE...???

Just under £19m.
In one month.
No, really. pic.twitter.com/NbJ5ipWMVS

Lou Smith@loulordsmith

And these ‘processes’ they are being paid ridiculous amounts of money for are supposed to be helpful disabled ppl & saving the country money!!

11:31 - 26 Jul 2018

• 3
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When it comes to claimants, the DWP is quick to claw back as much cash as possible. But for private companies, money is seemingly no object. Even if it is effectively for old rope.
Get Involved!

– Support DPAC, fighting for disabled people’s rights and support writer and campaigner Charlotte Hughes’ blog The poor side of life.

Featured image via Jacob Edward – Flickr and UK government – Wikimedia

Become a Canary member to support fearless independent journalism

• TAGS
• DISABILITY
• DWP
• PRIVATISATION
• UNIVERSAL CREDIT
• WELFARE

source: https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2018/07/26/the-dwp-just-revealed-the-eye-watering-millions-it-paid-out-to-private-companies/

The DWP sneaked out a damning admission just before parliament closed for the summer – The Canary 26 July 2018 + archive

Posted on July 26, 2018by butlincat

JULY 25TH, 2018  STEVE TOPPLE ANALYSIS, UK
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) released some damning information about benefit sanctions; conveniently just as parliament was closing for its summer holidays.

The DWP: sanctions and mental health

On Tuesday 24 July, minister of state at the DWP Alok Sharma responded to twoquestions from SNP MP Dr Philippa Whitford. She asked the same question twice:

whether [the] Department has made an assessment of the effect of benefit sanctions on the mental health of claimants.

But one question was specifically about people already living with mental health conditions.
To both questions, Sharma said:

No assessment has been made on the impact of benefit sanctions on the mental health of claimants.

https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-29/html/container.html

This is a damning admission. Not least because numerous independent studies have linked the sanctions regime to increases in mental distress among claimants.

The actual evidence

For example, just this month, a study by the University of Glasgow found [pdf, p15]that sanctions were associated with an increase in the prescriptions of some types of antidepressants. It said [pdf, p15] this was “indicative of adverse impacts on mental health”.
But as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation noted [pdf, p8] back in 2014:

sanctions and conditionality have also been associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes, increased stress and reduced emotional wellbeing…

More evidence…

On 29 November 2016, five leading professional psychiatric bodies issued a joint statement on sanctions. It said:

The sanctions process may be detrimental to people’s mental health and wellbeing… The links between the sanctions regime and the mental health and wellbeing of individuals should be subject to an independent review…
Not only are we concerned that the sanctions process is undermining mental health and wellbeing – there is… no commitment from the Government to investigate how the jobcentre systems and requirements may themselves be exacerbating mental health problems.

In February 2017, parliament’s Public Accounts Committee noted [pdf, p13] that sanctions “can have negative impacts on mental health, including depression and anxiety”. The homelessness charity Crisis gave it evidence [pdf, p9] showing that 75% of people it surveyed said sanctions had a “detrimental impact on their mental health”. The Citizens Advice Bureau told [pdf, p13] the committee the same thing.
The committee also said [pdf, p5]:

There is an unacceptable amount of unexplained variation in the Department’s use of sanctions, so claimants are being treated differently depending on where they live…
It does not know whether vulnerable people are protected as they are meant to be. Nor can it estimate the wider effects of sanctions on people…

And more evidence…

In May 2018, the Economic and Social Research Council funded a five-year study on sanctions by six universities. Called the Welfare Conditionality Project, it found that, for disabled and homeless people, lone parents, job seekers and those on Universal Credit, sanctions invariably did “very little”, were “largely ineffective” or had mixed outcomes.

In evidence to the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s inquiry into benefit sanctions, the Welfare Conditionality Project said its research:

highlighted benefit sanctions, and their possible future application, as regularly triggering high levels of stress, anxiety and depression and/or exacerbating existing physical and mental illnesses.

The list goes on and on. The DWP even admitted that one in five claimants whose deaths it was forced to review had at some point been sanctioned.
But one medical professional perhaps summed the situation up best.

A professional speaks

Clinical psychologist Dr Jay Watts told The Canary:

It is mind-blowing to see the DWP admit that they have still not assessed the impact of the imposition of sanctions on claimants. Let us put this in context. Claimants and activist groups have been telling the government that sanctions are causing claimants to self-harm, collapse further into mental illness and attempt suicide for many years. The extent of the crisis is such that even mainstream professional bodies and organisations such as the Samaritans and CAB have alerted government to the issue. Plus there is evidence of a huge rise in suicide rates as a result of benefits cuts and the insecurity of the sanctions regime. Sanctions not only punish individual claimants financially and psychologically but are a constant hovering menace effecting the embodied safety of all claimants.
Professionals, in solidarity with claimants, have been telling the government of the danger of this regime for many years now. What more exactly would it take to get the government to listen?

What more indeed? Because the DWP and the government are clearly not listening at all.

The DWP: beyond reform

Sharma, in response to Whitford’s question, also said:

We engage at a personal and individual level with all of our claimants and are committed to tailoring support for specific individual needs, including agreeing realistic and structured steps to encourage claimants into the labour market. These conditionality requirements are regularly reviewed to ensure that they remain appropriate for the claimant.
When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.

In 2014, David Clapson, who lived with diabetes, died from a lack of insulin. He was found with £3.44 to his name and no food in his stomach. The DWP had sanctioned him 18 days earlier.
The DWP doesn’t listen. It doesn’t care. And it is beyond reform. But this is exactly why campaigners and those affected need to keep up the pressure against this most draconian of government departments.
Get Involved!

– Support Disabled People Against Cuts and the Mental Health Resistance Network.

Featured image via geralt – pixabay and UK government – Wikimedia

Become a Canary member to support fearless independent journalism

source: https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2018/07/25/the-dwp-sneaked-out-a-damning-admission-just-before-parliament-closed-for-the-summer/

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