Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions he has had with Maximus on making improvements to how that provider conducts employment and support allowance assessments for people with a skin disease; and what steps that provider is taking to improve such assessments.
I will personally be meeting with Maximus in the New Year but the department regularly meets with the Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA) to discuss all aspects of their delivery of Work Capability Assessments, including ensuring it works effectively for people with all types of health conditions and disabilities.
The Department expects CHDA to continuously seek out opportunities to improve the service they provide and to identify how to improve the customer journey. Since CHDA took over the contract to carry out assessments in March 2015, they have made a number of improvements to claimants’ experience of assessments, including increasing the number of Healthcare Professionals by over 60% and opening new assessment rooms so they can see more people in more locations.
CHDA have also introduced a number of claimant-focused improvements, including: