What is This Claim About?
Disability claimants’ personal information may have been compromised by a Capita disability assessor who was caught taking photos of data on his computer screen so he could keep the details of claimants he had assessed.
Who’s Eligible?
If you applied for disability benefits during the government’s transition from the Disability Living Allowance to the Personal Independence Payment, you may be able to make a claim.
How Much Compensation Will I Receive?
If the group litigation is successful, qualified Class Members will receive compensation for the Capita assessor’s violation of their personal data.
The amount awarded to each Class Member will be determined in court.
How Do I Join?
Contact Data Leak Lawyers to find out how to make a claim.
The U.K. law firm Data Leak Lawyers is seeking claimants who suspect their personal data was compromised by a Capita disability assessor in 2016.
The assessor allegedly took photos of disability applicants’ details on the computer screen.
The claims aired on Channel 4’s “Dispatches” programme in April 2016, according to the Daily Mail.
Assessments Outsourced to Capita
Channel 4’s investigation focused on the upcoming changes to the Disability Living Allowance (DLA), replaced by the Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
These changes reportedly meant DLA claimants had to reapply for PIP and go through an assessment to determine whether they were eligible. The government outsourced the assessment tasks to Capita for £140 million.
The assessment information was forwarded to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), where decisions were made on each claim.
The government’s goal was to reduce its annual £12 billion bill for disability benefits, and as a result thousands of claimants’ applications were rejected.
The assessments are reportedly done in person and each applicant fills out a 35-page questionnaire before they are assessed. Those assessments are then scored using a points system, with points being awarded for how well the claimant can perform daily tasks.
The maximum benefit allowed is £140 per week.
Capita Assessors Caught Insulting Claimants
Psychiatric nurse Noel Finn was sent in by “Dispatches” as an undercover reporter to see how fairly the new PIP system was treating disability claimants.
Unfortunately, Finn found assessors were insulting the claimants, according to the Daily Mail.
Capita’s website said it was looking for “health professionals” to do the assessments, specifying it was in need of people who were able to empathize with the disabled and had a desire to improve their lives.
One assessor, who the Daily Mail referred to as Alan, was caught on camera making insulting remarks about a female claimant.
“Disability known as being fat,” Alan told Finn, saying the claimant asked for help to clean up after using the restroom because she was “too … fat to do it herself.”
Alan reportedly shared a similar comment with his manager, repeating the remark about how the woman was too fat to perform the activity herself, “but I’ve got to give her an award for it.”
A Capita spokesperson told the Daily Mail the assessor’s comments were “unacceptable.”
“We are obviously appalled by and sincerely apologise for this individual’s disrespectful comments and actions,” the spokesperson said. “If individuals do not meet our expectations we will always take appropriate action. This assessor will no longer work for Capita.”
‘Ridiculous’ Money and the Data Breach
The assessor also explained to Finn that when the Capita contract began in 2013, assessors could make a lot of money by pushing assessments through quickly.
“The money? It was ridiculous,” he told Finn. “I was getting around 20 grand a month, most months.”
That assessor also was caught taking pictures of sensitive, confidential information on his computer screen so as to keep the details of claimants he had assessed, the Daily Mail reported.
“Once they’ve attended, take a picture,” he reportedly told Finn. “If you come to your payday and you haven’t got all your assessment reports, how can you prove you’ve done them?”
Collecting claimants’ details in such a manner is a violation of the Data Protection Act; fines for such violations can reach £500,000.
Barrister Simon Butler told the Daily Mail it was “quite clear” Alan had breached the Data Protection Act.
“… [Y]ou’re not entitled to take photographs of the patient’s information, and therefore, as far as I’m concerned and from what I’ve seen, that would be a serious breach of his professional standards.”
The Capita spokesman told the Daily Mail the company doesn’t “recognise [Alan’s] claimed earnings and they do not correlate to the individual’s annual earnings.”
As far as the Data Protection Act violations, the spokesman said, “All employees are trained and expected to follow detailed processes regarding the handling and protection of data. This assessor’s reported actions are clearly wrong and unacceptable. We will take appropriate action against any breaches of processes.”
Disability groups reacting to the assessors’ reported activities said they were “appalled.”
Disability Rights UK chief executive Liz Sayce OBE said the report showed people were abusing the PIP system, adding she was alarmed at the remarks being made by the assessors.
“Anyone carrying out work of this nature for the government, should at the very least, be respecting of members of the public,” she told the Daily Mail. “It [is] clear this system is dehumanising and makes people frightened of the assessment procedure. We are also concerned that incentives to earn large sums of public money are being handed out when it should be going to the very people that need it.”
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