A fascinating assertion by Frank Field MP is reported in the Guardian. It is that many thousands of claimants are not medically examined as they should be. They are therefore given incapacity benefit when doctors think most of them should not receive the benefit.
Why are they not examined? It seems, if I understand correctly, that it is because there is a budget for the examinations and once that budget is used up, the administrators discourage General Practitioners from referring any more claimants for further medical examination. This sounds like monstrous incompetence and maladministration.
This is from the Guardian article:
Mr Field challenged claims that the government was successfully monitoring the IB process, and said the contract with Schlumberger Medical Services, the firm responsible for conducting incapacity tests, needed renegotiation.He wrote: "Doctors inform me that if they were allowed to use their own judgment, they would indicate that between 65 and 75% of files they examine should be followed by a medical examination". Doctors report they are told however by medical quality managers (their line managers) that "the service will not be able to meet its target and - therefore incur financial penalties - without reducing the number of clients examined."
He said local benefit offices "are constrained by a quota on the number of IB files that can be referred to the government's medical services for scrutiny. They cannot refer every file they would wish".
He pointed out that the doctors employed by Schlumberger on behalf of DWP "work off a quota and once they fulfil their quota, it is held over for the next month's quota. Very quickly the backlog develops."
The full article is here.
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Waste in public services • Welfare benefits
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