The NAO report covers assessments for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), which is paid to people who have difficulty working because of a medical condition, and the new benefit Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which is paid on the grounds of disability. Both benefits have courted controversy, with claimants reporting long waits for assessments, inaccurate decisions, and assessors lacking an understanding of complex conditions such as brain injury.
The NAO found that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has "not tackled and may have even exacerbated" problems over waiting times and targets, failing to meet key goals on performance and cost.
The report found that:
- There was still an estimated backlog of around 280,000 ESA assessments in August 2015
- Applicants had an estimated 23 week wait for their assessment, although this is down from a previous 29 weeks
- Assessment providers are struggling to recruit enough specialist medical staff to perform the assessments
- This has increased the average cost of each assessment to £190, a 65% increase
The increased assessment cost has been attributed to a number of factors, including issues with PIP IT systems and difficulty recruiting a sufficient number of assessors to cope with the caseload. As such, the estimated cost of hiring and training a healthcare professional for ESA assessments has risen from £26,000 in spring 2014 to £44,000 for a London-based nurse in 2015-16.
The NAO's findings follow a study by the British Psychological Society in 2015, which called for an "end-to-end redesign" of the assessment for ESA, highlighting the psychological impact of the assessment's weaknesses for people with brain injury and other conditions. Other studies have highlighted the increased suicide rates among ESA claimants, which many have put down to the poor assessment and review processes.
Commenting on the findings, Headway Chief Executive Peter McCabe said: "This is yet another report showing the failure of the DWP and its providers to deliver vital support to vulnerable people.
“With the public finances under intense pressure and scrutiny, it is difficult to understand how the cost of disability assessments can quadruple while thousands of people are still waiting for months on end for an assessment, which may not be conducted by assessors with appropriate specialist knowledge of their condition.
"With more and more people currently being reassessed for PIP on top of existing claims for ESA, the backlog is extremely concerning. Applications for these benefits are made by some of the most vulnerable people who require urgent financial support, so waiting nearly six months for an assessment is unacceptable.
"These findings show that the Government is failing on two fronts: providing support to disabled people and offering value for money to the public."
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