South Wales Evening Post Wednesday, August 29, 2012
DISABLED people, carers and friends staged a protest outside the Swansea office of a firm whose sponsorship of the Paralympics has been criticised by activists.
Multinational IT firm ATOS carries out ‘fit-for-work’ tests for the Department of Work and Pensions, which opponents claimed had led to some severely ill and disabled people being removed from the benefits system.
The tests have been condemned by disability groups, and yesterday’s protest at Grove House in the city centre, the ATOS assessment centre, was one of more than 20 taking place across the UK.
A spokesman for Disabled People Against Cuts said: “Ever since George Osborne announced he was slashing £18 billion from the welfare budget, the government has paid Atos £100 million a year to test 11,000 sick and disabled people every week, then decide whether they’re ‘fit for work’.”
The protest is one of a series of events planned for all this week.
100m a year that’s an awful lot of money to pay a company to destroy peoples life’s and fours them back in to work.