The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) paid out over £236 million to private contractors in June 2025 alone. Huge amounts of money went to companies providing dire DWP health and work assessments, while millions more went on failing employment schemes. It all begs the question why the DWP is so obsessed with non-existent benefit fraud – when its handing out hundreds of millions every month to unscrupulous, failing private companies?
DWP: huge spending on dodgy assessment providers
Over £40 million of the mind-blowing amount was spent on DWP health and Work Capability assessments. Companies benefitting from this bung included Capita, Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (what used to be known as Maximus), and Ingeus.
Anyone who has experience of DWP assessments will know that these companies are, at best, notoriously bad at delivering them. For example, a recent scandal involved assessors asking claimants ‘if they watched TikTok’ – like that’s a measure of a person’s illness or disability.
At worst, in the past some previous contractors’ decisions led to people’s deaths – with thousands of people dying after private contractors had declared them fir for work. There was also the now-notorious ‘kill yourself‘ scandal – where assessors were asking disabled people why they hadn’t taken their own lives yet.
So, for the DWP to hand private companies so much money to make decisions over disabled people’s lives continues to be a scandal in itself.
Serco: laughing all the way to the bank
Then, the DWP gave Serco over £7.5 million pounds. Much of this was for the controversial Universal Credit Restart Scheme. As the Canary previously reported, the DWP is contracting private sector providers to host twelve-month tailored employment support packages for certain benefit claimants. The DWP makes this a mandatory requirement for some claimants to participate in to receive their benefits. And notably, it can sanction those that do not comply with the scheme.
However, some of Serco’s money also likely went on assessments. As the Canary previously wrote:
Currently, including the extended Restart Scheme, [Serco] holds two further active contracts with the DWP. As the Disability News Service (DNS) reported in October, one of these is to carry out Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and WCA assessments. Serco boasted its contract with DWP was worth around £350m.
Alongside this, the department gave Serco part of the contract for its Commercial Agreement for Employment & Health Related Services (CAEHRS) programme. Again, this presents itself as an employment support scheme. In effect though, it revolves around pushing chronically ill and disabled people into work.
And many readers will also know that Serco was at the centre of the notorious electronic tagging scandal surrounding prisoners.
Other notorious names on the DWP payroll
Other companies that benefitted from huge bungs included Amazon. The DWP handed it over £5 million for its AWS, which would be used on the Universal Credit system. Amazon has been criticised recently by the Fair Tax Foundation for failing to disclose their total profits in the UK and consequently the corporation tax required. This is despite numerous calls for greater transparency from tax justice campaigners.
Meanwhile, the DWP gave over £7.5 million to Mitie – for facilities management. Again, it is a notorious company. Mitie has been accused of failing to investigate and address racist and discriminatory behavior among its staff, especially those working in immigration services for the Home Office. Plus, it’s headquarters were raided by the UK competition regulator over concerns about how it gained access to public sector contracts.
So, from assessors causing the deaths of disabled people, to tax-avoiding tech support – the DWP is in bed with some of the worst corporations that operate in the UK. Yet it, the government, and the media would have us believe that chronically ill, disabled, and non-working people are the problem. That is blatantly not the case.
Featured image via the Canary
