The claim asserts that contracts agreed by the previous Conservative government caused face-to-face PIP assessments to collapse. There is solid evidence that face-to-face assessments did indeed collapse: official figures cited in The Telegraph (March 2025) and in parliamentary written answers show that more than 80% of PIP assessments were conducted in person before the pandemic, but this fell to below 2% by September 2024 (only 1,270 of 74,000 assessments face-to-face). A DWP written answer from March 2023 showed face-to-face assessments at just 7% in the period February 2022–January 2023. There is also direct ministerial attribution to the contracts. DWP Minister Sir Stephen Timms told the House of Commons in February 2026: "Face-to-face assessments are such a small proportion of total assessments at the moment because of the contracts that the Conservative Government entered into towards the end of their term in office, which contained no requirements for an adequate number of face-to-face assessments." Baroness Sherlock similarly told the Lords in June 2025 that "in 2023, about a year before the general election, the previous Government signed long-term contracts, making sure that most assessors could work from home." The Functional Assessment Service (FAS) contracts signed in September 2023 and effective from September 2024 indeed set an 80% remote / 20% face-to-face channel-mix requirement, as confirmed in a written answer and in the tender documents. However, the causal claim is somewhat overstated. The dramatic collapse in face-to-face assessments primarily occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021), well before the FAS contracts were signed in September 2023 or took effect in September 2024. The pre-existing contracts with Atos, Capita, and Maximus had already shifted heavily to remote delivery. What the FAS contracts did was entrench and extend the remote-first model — locking in an 80% remote target, allowing home-based assessors, and lacking adequate face-to-face requirements — rather than initiating the collapse. The mechanism is plausible: contractually set channel-mix targets, home-based workforce models, and disposal of assessment premises would all constrain the ability to deliver face-to-face assessments. But the initial collapse was pandemic-driven, and the contracts perpetuated rather than originated it. The evidence supports the contracts as a meaningful contributor to the persistence of very low face-to-face assessment rates, with direct ministerial confirmation and a coherent mechanism, but the claim that the contracts "caused" the collapse overstates the causal role given that the collapse substantially predated them. Sources: - The Telegraph, "Disability benefits 'open to abuse' as face-to-face checks collapse" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/15/disability-benefits-open-to-abuse-as-face-to-face-checks/) - Daily Record, "DWP confirms reason for increase in PIP face-to-face assessments this year" (https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/money/pip-face-to-face-assessments-36716465) - Daily Record, "New DWP update on plans to increase face-to-face PIP assessments" (https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/money/dwp-update-increasing-pip-assessments-37278615) - TheyWorkForYou, House of Commons debate, 10 Feb 2026, Stephen Timms (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2026-02-10b.742.0) - TheyWorkForYou, Hansard Written Answers, 21 Feb 2025, Baroness Sherlock (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2025-02-10.HL4885.h) - UK Parliament Written Questions, 7 March 2023, PIP assessment channel data (https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-02-27/153806) - GOV.UK, Health Assessment Channels Research (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-assessment-channels-research/health-assessment-channels-research) - Find a Tender, Functional Assessment Services 2023 notice (https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/028407-2021) - Benefits and Work, "£2 billion bonanza for PIP and ESA assessors" (https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/2-billion-bonanza-for-pip-and-esa-assessors-and-dwp-will-decide-percentage-of-phone-and-face-to-face-assessments)