A report which the DWP has sat on for over three years reveals that over half of all PIP/WCA assessors leave within their first year.
The independent research for the DWP was conducted in February to April 2022, looking at recruitment and retention over the whole of 2021.
The report reveals that approximately 40% of recruits left during training and an astonishing 52% left within the first year of employment.
This means that 2,000 to 3,000 new full-time equivalent assessors have to be recruited each year, which is approximately 60% to 90% of the total of the assessor workforce . There were approximately 3,200 assessors in total at the end of 2021.
On average, it costs approximately £3,000 to hire an employee, not including training costs.
One reason recruitment is tough is the very poor image that the work has. As one assessor explained to the researchers:
“When you go onto Indeed and read really bad reviews for IAS…at first you think…well, you wouldn’t touch them.”
A professional recruiter had a similar opinion:
“Lots of people think about the job and then read these [reviews] and just shelve thinking about the job for a year… or just disregard the job.”
That was back in 2022. The DWP claim that things have improved since then.
They say that “The research was conducted in Spring 2022. Since then, DWP and health assessment Providers have worked together to improve recruitment and retention. The full-time equivalent health assessor workforce has increased in the period to the report being published.”
But a quick look at Indeed shows that reviews for PIP assessor jobs are still dire:
“Hard, stressful, emotional and soul destroying work. Huge criticism culture. Difficult making decisions under their guide lines that dont feel right as a health professional.
“Being ashamed, not telling people what you do, time constraints, pressure, high levels of stress.
“Like it ruined my mental health and makes you lack confidence in your ability.”
“Long and mentally exhausted you were promised it was a 9-5 but it the workload is impossible so you will always work overtime.”
Not only that, but the sheer number of jobs being advertised is enormous.
Recruitment site Indeed claims to have over 1,000 functional assessor posts, though there may be some duplication as the assessment companies themselves advertise, but also use recruitment agencies. Glassdoor claims to have 1,777 PIP assessor vacancies.
Meanwhile, the DWP has had to fall further behind with new PIP claim assessments, because it is trying to catch up with the backlog of PIP reassessments and doesn’t have the staff to do both in a timely fashion.
As the department admitted in its most recent PIP statistics release, clearance times “have recently shown variation between regions which is primarily a function of differing levels of available assessment capacity.”
So, not only are they short of assessors, but the staff shortages vary depending on what region you are in.
And there may be worse to come.
Because one of the big attractions of the role for many assessors is the opportunity to work from home.
So, the recent announcement that the proportion of face-to-face assessments is to be increased to 30% for both PIP and the WCA, rising from lows of 6% for PIP in 2024 and 13% for the WCA may make recruitment even harder.
At the moment, the only health professionals who can carry out assessments for the DWP are:
- Doctors
- Nurses
- Physiotherapists
- Occupational therapists
- Paramedics (only for PIP)
One of the suggestions made in the report is that the DWP considering broadening the scope for qualifying roles to other health professionals, including midwives and prescribing pharmacists.
Benefits and Work would not be surprised to see trials of this suggestion begin before the year is out.
You can read the full report here.
