Oral Answers to Questions

Sandra Osborne Excerpts

Thursday 13th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sandra Osborne (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Lab)]

3. What assessment he has made of the cumulative effect of the Government's policy programme on disabled people.

[Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)]

6. What assessment he has made of the cumulative effect of the Government's policy programme on disabled people.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mike Penning]

There was only one Government who abandoned disabled people on the Work programme and that was the previous Administration, and that is the truth. We will not allow that to happen. We will work very closely—[Interruption.] Opposition Front Benchers can try to shout me down, but it is the truth, and everyone knows it is the truth. Yesterday I was in Leeds where we talked to employers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to give them the confidence to employ people with disabilities and long-term illnesses.

[Sandra Osborne]

The Government finally seem to have woken up to the scale of the problems that Atos has in delivering the work capability assessment. Why then has it been awarded the personal independence payment contract when it is clear that it has such serious capacity problems?

[Mike Penning]

We are doing something to address the Atos WCA contract that the previous Government brought in. We are working with it to get it out of that programme, because we are not happy with the quality. We will work with it and Capita in ensuring that PIP produces exactly what it needs to do.