A US contractor that profits from testing whether some people in the UK should receive disability benefits has paid out £10m in dividends to its investors.
Maximus, a Virginia-based business, reported a 23% rise in pre-tax profit for its UK arm, from £23.6m to £29.1m, in its financial year to the end of September. Its revenue rose 2%, from £294m to £300m.
The company is the biggest provider of functional assessment services, or FAS, for the Department for Work and Pensions. These tests determine a person’s level of function and ability to perform everyday tasks.
The UK arm of the business paid out £10m in dividends to investors, equivalent to £10,000 per ordinary share, according to accounts filed at Companies House. The company also paid out £10m in dividends to its investors in the 2023 financial year.
Maximus secured a five-year contract from the government in 2023 to provide functional assessment services, at an estimated value of £800m over the period, with the option to extend for a further two years.
In a green paper published in March, the Department for Work and Pensions said experiences of assessments for the personal independence payment (Pip) were “not always positive”.
The national disability charity Sense said “nobody should be rewarded for treating disabled people with disrespect”.
Tom Marsland, of the charity, said: “Sense’s research found that half of disabled people with complex needs who’ve been through a benefits assessment found it humiliating, and almost half didn’t get the right communication support to properly demonstrate why they need support.
“These statistics are shocking and show a deep-rooted problem with the current assessment process.
“We would like to see the government introduce clear standards to ensure benefits assessments are fair and accessible for disabled people, with no one left feeling like a criminal simply for trying to access the support they need,” he said. “There should also be financial penalties for assessment providers who fail to provide the right communication support and accessibility measures.”
The government is planning to reduce eligibility for Pip and the health component of universal credit. As a result, official figures suggest that 3.2 million people could lose an average of £1,720 a year and 250,000 people could be pushed into relative poverty.
Maximus UK is part of a bigger US organisation that is listed in New York with a market value of $4.2bn (£3.1bn). Shares in the business, which also provides administration and services for US programmes such as Medicaid and Medicare, have dropped 12% in the past year.