On the DWP’s commodification and quantification of sick and/or disabled people for purposes of laying down performance-driven statistical benchmarks for ‘Disability Assessors’ working for AtoS on behalf of the DWP – a.k.a. ‘Targets’ in common parlance ….
~ Black Triangle Campaign

The Benefit Scrounging Scum Blog was Shortlisted for The Orwell Prize 2012
Posted by BenefitScroungingScum on Friday 27th July 2012
Details have begun to leak about the Dispatches investigation into the Work Capability Assessment scheduled to air on Monday night, then followed by a Panorama investigation into the same subject.
Dispatches report that they have sent an undercover GP, Dr Steve Bick, through the complete Atos training process filming undercover.
So, what really happens on the frontline for those being assessed for benefits and those doing the actual assessments?
A system of statistical norms is used to ascertain how many people a health care professional assigns to the different eligibility groups in Employment Support Allowance; the support group for those most unwell and not expected to perform any work, the Work Related Activity Group for those expected to be able to do some work at some point in the future, and those found fit for work.

Dr. Steven Bick went undercover for Channel 4 Dispatches to be screened this coming Monday 30th July 2012 at 8 p.m.
The next question is of course whether these ‘norms’ take any account of different conditions: i.e. are there different sets of norms for people with Mental Health conditions, fluctuating conditions, sensory disabilities or Learning Disabilities?
The answer is presumably not, as HCP’s (confirmed by DWP and Atos quotes) are outlining a simple, one system of averages based upon crude numbers of total people seen.
That would lead us to wonder, how can a norm possibly be a norm for an overall client group without accounting for all these different conditions?
Perhaps the DWP or Atos will see fit to share the answer to that question, but I shan’t be holding my breath waiting.
Then that leads us to some even bigger questions, the DWP record outcome data for WCA’s, to use as part of the official statistics relating to the benefit ESA.
This data is of course based on outcomes from a system which uses Atos assessments held to ‘unverifiable in origin’ norms, decisions almost always confirmed in practice by the DWP.
So, if the whole assessment system is based on a system of averages that have no regional- or condition-related breakdowns in them and then that flawed system is used to measure the official figures of those eligible for benefits, we then have some very serious questions to ask about the validity of those final figures.
Figures, remember, that seem to be built on an average assumption of how many people should receive a particular level of benefit, without ever leading us to the original data, if any, which is being used to predict these outcomes.
This could mean that four years on from the introduction of a benefit which has caused terrible distress and fear to sick and/or disabled people having to claim it; a system that has been implicated as a factor in multiple suicides and used to make presumptions about work and growth figures – this system has been based on nothing more than a guesstimate, that became an average, that became a norm, which became a target that isn’t a target.
3 Responses
Claimants have known for years that they work to targets, don’t tell me that the number of sick and disabled people needing the benefits stays constant, that’s like expecting an MP to always tell the truth, it will never happen.
ATOS are profit driven, the DWP are cut driven, and the government are just totally insane. You cannot account for this farce any other way.
Absolutely Correct
Question is when will Things Change for the Better Not the Worse ?
Get the Con Dems Out and the Rest can be Sorted