Delay in dealing with complaint about Jobcentre Plus medical examination report

What happened

Mr T attended a work capability assessment - a medical assessment to determine his entitlement to Employment Support Allowance. The assessment was with Atos Healthcare - a company that used to do these assessments for Jobcentre Plus. The healthcare professional who conducted the assessment completed a medical report. Jobcentre Plus decided that Mr T did not qualify for his incapacity benefit claim to be converted to Employment Support Allowance. He appealed this decision but the original decision wasn't changed.

Mr T then complained to Jobcentre Plus and Atos Healthcare that the healthcare professional had falsified the medical report in several respects and left things out. He also said that he had not 'declined' to do a specific movement, as stated in the report.

Mr T involved his MP, and eventually escalated his complaint to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE – the organisation that investigates complaints about Jobcentre Plus). It investigated but did not uphold his complaint. Mr T complained to us that ICE's report had not addressed all the specific questions he had asked.

What we found

We partly upheld Mr T's complaint. For the most part, ICE carried out a thorough investigation and reached reasonable conclusions. It did not, however, pick up on the fact that Atos Healthcare had taken around six months to address Mr T's complaint about the phrase 'client declined' in the medical report. ICE's mistake caused Mr T confusion and frustration as it meant that he had to make further complaints about the same issue.

Putting it right

Jobcentre Plus apologised to Mr T for the length of time it took to address his complaint about the use of the phrase 'client declined'. ICE apologised to Mr T for not recognising that Jobcentre Plus was at fault on this.