Criticism of the Work Capability Assessment assessments. On the same day, an Atos spokesman made it clear that the training curriculum was set by the DWP and duly followed by Atos, stating: "We do not deviate from government guidelines in our training". The Employment Minister was asked by the BBC about the allegations of bias but he replied with a general explanation of the principles underpinning the Incapacity Benefit reassessment programme. Tom Greatrex MP wrote to the Prime Minister to bring to his attention the whistleblower's allegations that the core assessment was "skewed against the claimant". Downing Street made no reply but simply passed the letter
Incapacity Benefit Incapacity Benefit Incapacity Benefit is a British social security benefit that was introduced in 1995 in an attempt to control the rising number of people on out-of-work sickness benefits. In 2008, the government began to phase it out by making it unavailable to new claimants. Between 2011 and 2016 a compulsory reassessment programme moved most pre-2008 Incapacity Benefit recipients onto Employment and Support Allowance, so that by May 2017 fewer than 3000 people were still receiving the full rate of the old benefit (another 70,000 were receiving National Insurance credits). By rooting out weak claims and encouraging people with moderate