Benefits Agency Medical Services

EDM number 826 in 1999-00, proposed by John Cryer on 08/06/2000.

That this House congratulates the Social Security Select Committee on its report on the operation of the Benefits Agency medical services, which concludes that the system in place is guilty of penalising claimants unfairly and leads to benefits being withheld from genuine cases; further notes the report's conclusion that Sema Group Limited, which runs BAMS, is cutting costs at the expense of service, resulting in undeserving claims going undetected whilst genuine cases are overlooked; is aware that welfare groups estimate many genuinely disabled people could be losing up to ú70 or ú80 per week; is concerned that amongst the major criticisms are that consultations with doctors are rushed through without the proper checks, that some doctors are not performing to adequate standards and that the medical service could be guilty of institutional racism in its treatment of ethnic minorities; and calls on the Benefits Agency urgently to review decisions made by doctors known to be underperforming, and on ministers to renegotiate the contract with BAMS to bring real improvements in service to the public.

This motion has been signed by a total of 59 MPs.