Saturday 8 September 2012

WCA Audio Recording - an enquiry to Atos

To:  Atos Customer Services

Dear Sir,

In your “Pilot Evaluation Report”, you state:

The results of the pilot indicate that there are (sic) a significant proportion of clients who would welcome the opportunity to have their assessment recorded”  and

“There is increasing demand for recording of assessments and currently there is no easy process to offer this and we estimate AH receives around 1-2 requests / day. Therefore is a need to make recordings more readily available on request. “

And finally, “Our recommendation would be that recording should be become routine as it is in a call centre or for example – NHS direct. “

However, on your website you now state: “Due to minimal take-up during the pilot, we only have a limited number of recording devices available”.
Why are you now misrepresenting the results of the trial and why have you so drastically changed your position on the usefulness of the facility to the point where you now only offer it on a hit and miss basis?  Surely this will result in discrimination – some claimants will have the benefit of a recording, others will not, which if they decide to appeal the DWP decision, places them at a huge disadvantage.
I look forward to hearing your explanation.
Yours faithfully

2 comments:

Tia Junior said...

A prompt and courteous reply from Atos said:

"Thank you for your enquiry. I can advise that we have been working closely with the DWP to increase the availability of recording equipment and any customer who requests their assessment be recorded is being offered the facility. I hope this is helpful"

I have asked for a bit of clarification . . . . .

Tia Junior said...

And here it is . . . . .


"All customers when contacted to make an appointment can request the assessment to be recorded and we will provide the facility at any of our Medical Assessment Centres (MECs)"