The Daily Record
ATOS recently managed to assess 32 people who were terminally ill as being fit for work. That is a genuine scandal.
WHEN it comes to moving people off sickness benefits, nobody would argue against the notion that those who are fit to work should work.
It is a simple principle – but it needs to be applied with compassion and common sense and a respect for the dignity of the sick which has been all too often missing.
It is clear that private company Atos – involved in pushing the long-term ill and disabled back into the nonexistent job market – and the Department of Work and Pensions possess none of those qualities.
Atos, the multi-billion-pound French IT firm contracted to carry out Work Capacity Assessment, recently managed to assess 32 people who were terminally ill as being fit for work.
That is a genuine scandal.
But the macabre turns to the ridiculous when it is revealed that 40 per cent of all assessments carried out by the company are overturned on appeal.
In other words, four out of 10 people classed as fit to work by the firm are not fit to work at all.
Atos make £112million a year for running the tests and £60million for running the appeals process.
Yet there is no process to ensure the company are penalised if they don’t do their work properly, as we report today.
Meanwhile, the sick and disabled can have their benefits withdrawn if they do not comply with the crazy system.
The test that determines who is eligible for sickness benefits harms some of the weakest and most vulnerable in society.
The vast majority of claimants are not shirkers and would welcome a return to work that suits their needs. But this one-size-fits-all approach to assessing fitness to work is clearly not working itself.
There has to be some consideration of individual history and some leeway for common sense – not incentives to push people through the system regardless.
If claimants can have their assessment overturned twice and then receive a third summons for another test, the system is not just maddening – it is mad.
And if four out of 10 people are deemed to be not fit for work on appeal, then the WCA themselves need some serious re-assessment.
3 Responses
Unfortunately this will continue to happen until the sheep who read the Torygraph and Daily Heil and other fascist publications start to think for themselves,something they seem incapable of doing. They remind me of the Germans of the 30s and 40s who blindly followed Hitler into oblivion, brainwashed sheep. They are the ones who will abuse disabled people, tip them out of their wheelchairs, spit at them, call them scroungers etc, while their beloved leaders spout anti disability rants. While their beloved leaders continue to steal taxpayers money and give it to the likes of A4e, AtoS, and anyone else who spouts anti disabled rhetoric. Not forgetting the hundreds of billions given to the ultra corrupt EU. They also seem to forget everyone in this country pays Tax apart from their leaders Tax evader mates that is. We are all being scammed by the likes of AtoS, A4e etc with the governments complete approval. The deceit, lies and fraud committed by these government hit men is casually forgotten by the fascist press. Until everyone wakes up and see’s what the corrupt governments of this country are doing that includes Labour, things are not likely to change. The blood on the hands of the establishment means nothing to them. Empathy, morals, decency and a sense of fair play has been replaced by fascist policies that do nothing but harm the vulnerable of society, fraud and theft committed on a scale not seen since Nazi Germany. For evil to flourish good men need do nothing and that is what is happening. Once this evil regime has eliminated the disabled, unemployed etc, they will go after everyone else, they will not stop until this country is completely enslaved and living in poverty. There are members of the judiciary, the police, the establishment as a whole who are honest and trustworthy and when we are all united, sick and or disabled, low paid, unemployed, homeless etc, we can really start to fight back. We the people can make a difference we can bring decency back to this country. There is something desperately wrong when the only thing that people think and talk about is Big Brother, T.O.W.I.E, Football, Eastenders and the ultra fascist Jeremy Kyle, it shows that the brainwashing is working. Imagine the headlines if millions of people unite and march on Parliament. Our fathers and grandfathers fought to keep fascism out of this country and over the last thirty years every political party has become infested with it. The people of Britain no longer have any rights, and the governments policies of Dividing the nation are working.
ah atos made by tony and now driven by the torys this the taker away of our benefits how much longer do we go on paying for the bankers mistakes do they our mps care not many by the look of them still stuffing their food and drink in the great house that allows this tragedy to happen time and time again jeff3
Absolutely the Simularity between the Knuckleheaded Sheep who Read the Tory
Regime Propaganda Rags and the Sheep who went Along with the National Socialist
Regime in the 1930’s
Both the Ivory Tower Politicians and the Scum who Tip Disabled People out of
Wheelchairs are a Affront to Civilised Humanity
I am so Angry and Sick with all the Daily Oppression and Misery in the UK
and the Obliviousness of too Many about this Crime against Humanity