Are assessment companies covering up serious complaints about issues such as vomiting babies and dodgy social media posts by letting assessors go before a complaint can be pursued?
Benefits and Work has heard from claimants who say they have been told assessors no longer work for the company when they have made a serious complaint about them, raising the possibility that assessment providers are avoiding disciplinary action and covering up serious complaints.
Earlier this month, Benefits and Work revealed that there had been 238 complaints against assessors in the period September 2024 to March 2025, but not a single one resulted in disciplinary action being taken.
In every case, the issues were dealt with by “reflective learning or policy updates, further support/ training and ongoing review.”
However, one claimant who contacted us said that she could hear noises at the start of her PIP telephone assessment and asked what they were. She was told by the assessor “Oh, it’s my baby vomiting.” The claimant had asked beforehand for her assessment to be recorded, but when she checked that this was being done the assessor told her it was too late to record it as the assessment had already started, even though no questions had been asked.
When the claimant contacted the assessment company to complain about a distressed baby being present at her assessment, she was told that the assessor had “left the service” and therefore no action could be taken.
In another case, the claimant was made aware of questionable posts made by the health professional who had carried out their assessment. This included one in which the assessor had said they were enjoying assessing those who needed benefit and "weeding out those who don't". The job of an assessor is simply to compile evidence and give an opinion on which descriptors apply, not to weed people out.
The claimant submitted the posts as part of her evidence to a tribunal, which accepted that they showed evidence of bias on the part of the assessor and the claimant’s appeal was successful.
The claimant then made a complaint to the assessment company and, once again, she was told that they had “left the service” and so no complaint could be considered.
These are just two cases, but it is remarkable that absolutely no complaints about assessors over a seven month period resulted in even a verbal warning.
If assessment companies are quietly encouraging assessors to resign – if they are sessional they wouldn’t even need to do this – rather than face disciplinary action, this would explain the assessment companies’ impressive clean sheet.
Benefits and Work would be happy to hear from other claimants who have had a similar experience.
