Discredited Capita assessor Alan Barham exposed by "Dispatches"

The request was refused by Department for Work and Pensions.

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

You have disclosed that discredited Capita assessor Alan Barham "completed 869 Personal Independence Payment Assessments during his employment with Capita":

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/cy/reques...

Paragraph 19 of CM v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions[2020] UKUT 259 (AAC) refers to the possibility of a fresh examination for someone who had the misfortune of seeing him:

"19. ...The Secretary of State submitted that, if I remitted,the next First-Tier Tribunal “should weigh the evidence in the normal manner” and that “Mr Barham’s report should be weighed as withall the evidence before the tribunal”(paragraph 4, page 168). I said that was not good enough, because the criticisms of Mr Barham meant that his purported observations and purported examination could not be relied upon (page 206). I directed that, unless the Secretary of State was conceding the enhanced rate of both components (rendering further reports unnecessary), she must tell me whether she was going to send the claimant for a fresh examination and if not, why not."

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...

1. How many of the 869 PIP assessments resulted in fresh examinations as a consequence of the information obtained about Barham by the "Dispatches" programme?

2. Please provide the start and end dates of the period during which Barham carried out his 869 PIP assessments.

3. If Barham also carried out any other assessments relating to benefit claimants what were they and how many did he carry out?

4. What is the highest number of PIP assessments carried out by a single Capita assessor.

Annex 1 of the decision includes this:

"They’d pay around £80 an assessment for the first 8 assessments, then they paid £160 an assessment for 8-14, then they paid £300 per assessment for 14-21."

5. Can you confirm that these figures and amounts are correct? If not, please provide the correct figures and amounts.

Yours faithfully,

J Roberts

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
we cannot guarantee a response within this timescale.
 
Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.gov.uk/dwp

DWP Central FOI Team,

1 Attachment

Dear J Roberts,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 30th
October.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

Thanks for your response. I would like to revise my fifth request.

Original request:

'Annex 1 of the decision includes this:  
 
"They’d pay around £80 an assessment for the first 8 assessments, then they paid £160 an assessment for 8-14, then they paid £300 per assessment for 14-21."  
 
5. Can you confirm that these figures and amounts are correct? If not, please provide the correct figures and amounts.”'

Revised request:

At the time Barham was carrying out assessments, please provide information showing the standard amounts Capita paid its assessors for each assessment they carried out. Please also provide information showing how the standard amounts paid to assessors for each assessment could vary in any given month.

Yours faithfully,

J Roberts

DWP freedom-of-information-requests, Department for Work and Pensions

This is an automated confirmation that your request for information has
been accepted by the DWP FOI mailbox.
 
If your email is a Freedom of Information request you can normally expect
a response within 20 working days.
 
However please be advised that due to the current situation with COVID-19
we cannot guarantee a response within this timescale.
 
Every effort is being made to respond to FOIs as we would usually but the
current situation means that available Departmental resources will be
needed on other high priority areas.
 
We kindly ask for your understanding during this unprecedented situation
and we will aim to deal with your FOI request as soon as is practically
possible.
 
Email FOI responses will be issued from [1][email address]
We recommend that you add this address to your email contacts otherwise
the response may be treated as Spam or Junk mail.  
 
Should you have any further queries in connection with this request do
please contact us.
 
[2]http://www.gov.uk/dwp
 
 

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.gov.uk/dwp

DWP Central FOI Team,

1 Attachment

Dear J Roberts,

I am writing in response to your request for information, received 13th
December.

Yours sincerely,

DWP Central FoI Team

J Roberts left an annotation ()

Capita again:

'Too many people in Northern Ireland have had claims for their Personal Independence Payment (PIP) "unfairly rejected", an investigation has found.

The damning report conducted by the Public Services Ombudsman Margaret Kelly was published on Thursday.

It found that applicants were kept "in the dark" by the Department for Communities and Capita, which carries out PIP assessments.'

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ire...