Copy of complaint sent this morning by Black Triangle to the Scottish representative of the Office of Fair Trading Re: Unum.
Dear Kyla,
I write to you as the Scottish Representative of the Office of Fair Trading on behalf of the Edinburgh based disability rights campaign group Black Triangle which has serious concerns regarding the fairness, (and legality), of Unum Insurance’s involvement in the UK income protection, (disability), insurance market when they have been advising the UK Government, (via the DWP), on welfare reforms since 1994 to the present time.
For reference to this please check out the following pages on our website –
Unum Marketing Campaign
https://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2011/08/21/unum-unveils-consumer-campaign/
This also mentions the Guardian/Unum tie up, with The Guardian being one of the only newspapers that was campaigning against Atos’s involvement in the benefits assessment programme, (until the above mentioned Unum tie up that is).
Unum’s Marketing Master Class for it’s Financial Advisors
https://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2011/09/15/unums-game-plan/
This page references what Unum describe as “A Master Class” to their Financial Advisors”, (Salesmen), in which they advise them that the current welfare reforms, (that they advised on), are something that can be used as a “sales tool” for want of a better description.
Unum/Atos – A Conflict of Interests?
https://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2011/10/01/unum-the-dwp-conflicts-of-interest-insider-trading/
An “editorial” type article outlining Black Triangle’s general concerns re Unum’s involvement in the income protection, (disability), insurance market.
Unum Denies Profiting from Welfare Reforms
Unum’s denial to John Pring, (of www.disabilitynewsservice.com), that they are profiting from the current welfare reforms with Black Triangle’s view being, (on the evidence that we have), that Unum’s involvement as advisors to the DWP was grossly understated by the Unum executives to John’s enquiries.
See Also – Atos : Unum Connections
https://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2011/09/05/the-uk-a-country-of-second-chances/
Mike O’Donnell, Chief Medical Officer of Atos Healthcare.
Check out who the Chief Financial Officer of Unum Insurance UK is too.
And –
https://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2011/08/23/important-read-circulate/
http://www.whywaitforever.com/dwpatosveterans.html
https://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2011/09/07/new-labour-the-market-state-and-the-end-of-welfare/
BBC Has internal Unum documents claiming that they are influencing UK Government policy.
And the attached report by Mo Stewart which was distributed to 360 members of The House of Lords prior to the 2nd reading of the Welfare Reform bill and referenced during the debate by several of them.
For information regarding the Unum scandal in the US may I suggest the book “Insult to Injury, Insurance, Fraud & the Business of Bad Faith that was recommended to me by Prof Dan Feldman, (Professor of Law, Yale University), who was the special prosecutor of the New York DA’s office which negotiated the legal settlement on behalf of 38 US states with Unum as the definitive general description of what went on –
If you understand how Atos is operating in the UK, you only have to read the first 30 pages of this book to see that they are operating in exactly the same way as Unum was in the US prior to them being prosecuted, fined, ordered to pay $100’s of millions in compensation and reopen over 300,000 claims
Black Triangle have serious and genuine concerns regarding Unum Insurance’s position in the UK income protection insurance market with all the evidence that we have seen indicating that this has been a long term plan that has included infiltrating the DWP to enter the UK market for their products.
We request that the Office of Fair Trading use the considerable powers it has to investigate this matter fully and take any necessary action.
Yours,
Phil Lockwood
Webmaster & Information Coordinator On Behalf of www.BlackTriangleCampaign.Org
11 Responses
Well done Phil and Black Triangle Campaign for all the good work your doing….
ATOS to means test Para Olympians http://viciousmalcious.blogspot.com
Do you have about Peter Dewis, sixteen years with the Dept of Social Security, authoring the Disability Handbook with Aylward then over to Unum as Chief Medical Officer and since 2002 Director of Customer Care.
I keep meaning to get this stuff on my blog, but sooo much. It’s a big job to coordinate it isn’t it? Well done what you’re doing, very much support you in this.
Yes, excellent stuff. Would love to see their reply. I don’t understand the Guardian connection because the Guardian is a trust, apparently, though I know they are involved with the UNUM campaign
The shennanigans of insurance companies who refuse to pay out compensation to victims of health-related diseases and disabilities never ceases to amaze me.
Not just years, but decades of delaying tactics and obfuscations using the legal process, is like something straight out of a Dickens novel –
UK Supreme Court refuses to overrule Scottish Parliament
Newsnet Scotland
12 Oct 2011
http://www.newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-news/3404-uk-supreme-court-decides-not-to-overrule-scottish-parliament.html
“The UK Supreme Court has refused to uphold an appeal lodged by insurance companies against legislation brought in by the Scottish Parliament.
Today’s judgement ensures that Scots will still be allowed the right to claim compensation for an asbestos-related condition called pleural plaques.”
At a slight tangent, don’t forget the victims of the blood contamination scandal of the late 1970s/early 1980s.
They are still waiting to this day for official recognition and proper compensation from our own government for the health crimes perpetrated against them and their loved ones.
See Facebook group Tainted Blood for more info and links, and join them if you can –
Tainted Blood
https://www.facebook.com/groups/6802221935/
When it comes to official health disasters in the UK, such as the blood contamination scandal or the current nationwide campaign of medical fraud and abuse by DWP and Atos qualified medical staff, British patients have no rights and no legal redress to justice, never mind proper compensation for the terror and trauma they are subjected to.
British doctors can lie, cheat and commit fraud in the UK on behalf of the government and its private contractors, Atos, and the governing and regulatory medical bodies such as the GMC and the Nurses and Midwifery Council couldn’t give a shit.
Well, I think you guys really set something off here. This is my Sitemeter screengrab from this afternoon (and its been fairly quiet I have to say for ‘little visitors’).
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/306337_293080270710333_284664934885200_1191531_1972068753_n.jpg
ALL of the hits were for my Michael O’Donnell pages, one spent 10 minutes, visited 4 pages. One exited from the Mansel Aylward page.
Just to say Gill Troll-Baiter Thorburn,
I’ve only just visited your website for the first time. Brilliant stuff. Such a clean layout and easy to understand.
Your latest post about the new state ideology that the sick and specifically the poor sick, must be forced to work, even though they are recognised as sick, is spot on.
These on-going neoliberal workfare “welfare reforms” are the medical ethics of the stalinist forced labour camp – with accompanying newspeak Orwellian language and opaque Kafkaesuqe bureaucratic morality and processes.
The Working Sick: A Hidden Transcript in New Welfare Policy
downwithallthat
04 Oct 2011
http://downwithallthat.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/the-working-sick-a-hidden-transcript-in-new-welfare-policy/
Mansell Aylward, now there’s a name (actually it isn’t really a name at all, is it. I always think it should be some kind of arcane implement in B and Qs) lol
Thank-you Joe! When I first started looking into this stuff I had a sense of ‘something going on here’. I never imagined the shocking twisting of reality that’s been going on, and the deliberate attempt to manipulate how people think about illness and disability. For what? Profits? How sick is that?
Sasha, lol yes 😀