The Londoner has been told that government contractor Atos was fined £30 million for errors in its welfare tests on disabled people. The IT company — which the Department of Work and Pensions put in charge of deciding which people on benefits were well enough to work — had its contract unceremoniously cancelled a year early this March, following a campaign spearheaded by Paralympian Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson.
It was announced at the time that Atos had made a “substantial financial settlement” to the DWP, now headed up by Iain Duncan Smith, for “significant quality failures” in its reports on people’s ability to work. Atos was given the contract worth £500 million by the Labour government in 2008. Until now details of the fine have been kept hush-hush to avoid embarrassing the company.
So what does the department have to say about the £30 million our Whitehall mole tells us Atos paid it? “They are paying us a financial settlement but we can’t disclose the amount for commercial reasons,” says the DWP spokesperson. Perhaps Atos would like to confirm or deny the figure. “It’s all legally bound up, I can’t comment,” says its company spokesperson. But is the £30 million correct? “Will you tell me who gave you the figure?” was Atos’s only reply.
The real question is not who blabbed but why it’s all coming out now. Could it have anything to do with the fact that senior Atos staff spent Monday complaining to a Parliamentary Select Committee that they had been “vilified” for the Government’s mistakes and someone felt this might have been a whinge too far.
