Atos has faced protests about its role in delivering welfare changes in the UK
The company which is
quitting its contract to provide fitness-for-work assessments for the
government has warned its successor will also struggle unless the
process is improved.
They told MPs that other firms would find it hard to hire staff due to "negative coverage" about their work.
Critics say delays and wrong decisions have caused distress to the vulnerable.
Ministers announced in March that the contract to deliver Work Capability Assessments in England, Wales and Scotland was being terminated early by mutual consent after criticism of the French contractor's performance.
The contract had been due to end in August 2015.
More than three million people on employment and support allowance, including all those who previously claimed incapacity benefit, are being assessed to see how their illness or disability affects their ability to work in a process that began under Labour but which has been accelerated by the coalition government.
'Lightning rod'
Facing questioning by the Commons Work and Pensions Committee, Atos senior vice president Lisa Coleman acknowledged the firm had not got everything right since October 2010.
She also conceded an inability to make a sufficient profit was a factor in the firm's decision to withdraw from the contract, for which it has had to pay compensation.
But she said Atos had become a "lightning rod" for public anger with the principle of the fitness-to-work assessments and it was "massively over-simplistic" to think a change of provider would change that.
"Unless something is done around educating people what the actual operational reality of that policy really is and what they mean potentially for individuals going through that then I find it difficult to see that actually just changing the supplier will change things," she said.
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