Kate Green MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Disabled People, responding to reports that Maximus may be awarded a contract to assess fitness-to-work, said:

“Ministers’ chaotic handling of Atos’s contract to run Work Capability Assessments has left more than 600,000 people stuck in a huge backlog while many thousands more are being let down by a failing service which is costing taxpayers millions of pounds.

“Today’s announcement of a replacement for Atos won’t be enough to deal with the underlying problems with Work Capability Assessments unless the Tory-led government changes the way the assessments are run.

“Labour will reform Work Capability Assessments to help more disabled people into work. We will give disabled people a central role in monitoring the tests and we will tackle the huge backlog of assessments.”