Poor service from Jobcentre Plus led to inconvenience and frustration

What happened

Ms Y made a claim for Employment Support Allowance (ESA) because she was unable to work due to ill health. She had to attend a Work Capability Assessment to decide if she was too unwell to work and, in the meantime, Jobcentre Plus gave her ESA. Ms Y filled in an ESA questionnaire before the assessment with Atos Healthcare (a company that conducted the assessments on behalf of Jobcentre Plus) and submitted it to Jobcentre Plus. However, when she attended the assessment, the doctor noted that he had not got the ESA questionnaire. He completed a medical report for Jobcentre Plus anyway.

Based on the Atos Healthcare report, Jobcentre Plus concluded that Ms Y was not too unwell to work. It then refused her ESA claim and stopped her benefit immediately. Ms Y appealed against that decision on the basis that the Atos Healthcare assessment had been conducted poorly. Jobcentre Plus reinstated Ms Y's ESA at a lower rate until the appeal was decided. However, Ms Y went back to work and her ESA stopped altogether.

While working, Ms Y continued to communicate with Jobcentre Plus. She asked why it had not replied to some of her letters or responded to her complaint about Atos Healthcare. Jobcentre Plus apologised for not dealing with Ms Y's letters properly and paid her £75. It said she needed to make her complaint directly to Atos Healthcare, so she did this. Atos Healthcare looked into Ms Y's complaint and found that Ms Y's assessment had not been conducted properly by its doctor. It recommended that Jobcentre Plus ask Ms Y whether she wanted a fresh assessment or for the appeal tribunal to decide her claim. Jobcentre Plus took no action and Ms Y's appeal went ahead but the appeal tribunal didn't uphold the appeal.

Ms Y then complained to ICE (the organisation that investigates complaints about Jobcentre Plus) and while it looked into the matter, Jobcentre Plus implemented Atos Healthcare's recommendations and offered Ms Y a fresh assessment. Ms Y attended the assessment with the original ESA questionnaire she had completed. Despite the appeal tribunal's decision, Jobcentre Plus concluded from the new assessment report that Ms Y should have been awarded ESA. It calculated the arrears and paid Ms Y over £800.

ICE found Ms Y's complaint about Jobcentre Plus' handling of her letters justified and that the £75 it had paid to her was a 'sufficient and appropriate remedy' for the poor service she experienced. But ICE could not look into the ESA paid because it was outside the scope of its investigation.

What we found

We upheld Ms Y's complaint about Jobcentre Plus, and partly upheld her complaint about ICE. We found that Jobcentre Plus had mishandled Ms Y's complaint about Atos Healthcare. It should have told her sooner to complain directly to Atos Healthcare or passed her complaint on to it. This further delayed a response to her complaint.

Jobcentre Plus should also have acted on Atos Healthcare's recommendation to put things right for Ms Y by offering her the choice of a fresh assessment or the appeal. We also found that Jobcentre Plus' decision to replace the appeal tribunal's decision had been incorrect. Also there was no evidence that the appeal tribunal had not looked at all the facts of her case. Therefore the £800 was an overpayment, which was not due to her.

ICE should have recognised that Jobcentre Plus had failed to take any action to address or implement Atos Healthcare's recommendations. This was a failing.

Putting it right

Jobcentre Plus apologised to Ms Y for its poor handling of her case and acknowledged that it had made a wrong decision by paying her ESA. It also explained to Ms Y that should her health affect her capability to work in future, she should consider reapplying for ESA. Jobcentre Plus agreed not to ask Ms Y to repay the £800 that had been paid to her by mistake.

ICE also apologised for not looking into all aspects of Ms Y's complaint.