The long awaited report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman was released yesterday (25th October 2017). Read it here. Whilst the report remit was to investigate the complaints made about the DWPs handling of claimants awards, it fails to put this in the wider context of a scheme that brings treasury a return on investment. A repetition of the governments rhetoric of the need for cuts has diminished the complainants longer term concerns. Who, having undergone difficulties for the past three years, are now set to experience yet more problems in accessing the support they require. 
 The PHSO recognised that the effect of changes to the scheme “was a series of flawed decisions that underpinned a change in operational approach which had a particularly detrimental impact on some members of two specific groups of people: deaf and self employed customers”. (p.9) 

Following this, the report states that “in the context of increasing demand and limited resources, it can be tempting for Departments to look to make immediate savings by focusing on the most expensive cases and making cuts to these”, however the report affirms that the government accepted all recommendations of the Sayce report which is where the return on investment was first published. We therefore question the need to make any cuts to support as the scheme is not only self funding, it actually brings money in. 

The government have disputed the Sayce figures (which contradicts the point made above) yet have never done a full cost analysis of the scheme. This was previously called for by the DWP Select Committee inquiry (read the report here). It is disappointing that the PHSO didn’t consider asking why a full cost analysis had not been provided or how they intend to mitigate the cap, which goes against why the scheme was originally established. 

We were disappointed that the PHSO has been so slow to produce this report and that in it has needed to recognise many of its own failings. 

 This report is very disappointing in its lack of recommendations. The AtW scheme is “not fit for purpose” (read our Barriers to Work report and recommendations) and this has been a missed opportunity for the many deaf and disabled clients who had put their hopes in this process.