Friday, March 28, 2014

CONTRACT KILLED: ‘Toxic brand’ ATOS exit work assessment contract early as Condems rush to appoint new benefits assassin to go after the disabled, weak & vulnerable

Benefits test company ATOS to leave work assessment contract early. ATOS, the French IT company contracted out by the Tory led Condem Westminster Government to cut the sick, disabled & elderly’s benefits to nothing, is to finish its contract early, Government ministers have confirmed. The early termination of the work assessment contract with ATOS – who were branded “Contract Killers” in hearings at the Scottish Parliament ten days ago, comes amid mounting criticism of the company’s treatment of disabled people and media investigations that linked ATOS to the deaths of hundreds of Scots & thousands of the disabled, ill, vulnerable & the elderly across the UK.

However there is mounting speculation that some kind of back door financial deal has been done between the Westminster Government and ATOS to get the company out of the headlines before next year’s General Election, and this year’s Independence Referendum in Scotland, where ATOS cuts to benefits claimants have particularly hit hard among Scots communities of the vulnerable, long term ill and disabled, leading to hardship, poverty, homelessness and rising numbers of suicides.

The early quit notice from ATOS, who were due to finish their contract in August 2015 follows feeble UK government criticism over "significant quality failures". Commenting on ATOS desire to end its contract, Disabilities Minister Mike Penning said a new company would be appointed in early 2015. Mr Penning also claimed Atos would not receive "a single penny of compensation".

BUT ATOS will also continue with assessments for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) benefit  in Scotland, the north of England, London and the south of England. Another company, Capita, provide PIP assessments in central England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

PIP, which replaced DLA (Disability Living Allowance) is another controversial reform introduced by the Condems who want to cut all benefits claims from disabled persons for even the lowest level of payments which could make all the difference in their lives.

ATOS claimed in a statement it would "work hard to support transition to a new provider", adding: "We will be transferring our infrastructure and employees to ensure consistency of service to those going through the process. "There will be no change for those applying for Employment and Support Allowance."

Last month, ATOS said it was seeking to end its government contract under which it carried out the Work Capability Assessments in Scotland, England & Wales. However, ATOS will continue to carry out the assessments in Northern Ireland under a separate contract.

All claimants applying for Employment and Support Allowance must undergo the ATOS Work Capability Assessment to see how their illness or disability affects their ability to work. Atos has been criticised over the number of these assessments it has made as well as for lengthy waiting times and refusals which have led to many deaths of people throughout the UK, a figure put at a staggering 32 benefits test related deaths every week. Disability campaigners have described the work tests as "ridiculously harsh and extremely unfair".

Public and Commercial Services union general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said the assessments were "designed to harass vulnerable people and take their benefits away rather than provide support and guidance".

"Doctors, MPs and disabled people all believe the tests should be scrapped so, instead of replacing the failed Atos with another profit-hungry provider, the government should bring the work in-house and invest in it properly."

And charity Sense called for a "root-and-branch reform of the system to ensure disabled people are judged fairly on their ability to work".

PETITION TO HOLRYOOD SLAMMED ATOS AS CONTRACT KILLERS:

MSPs heard company linked to deaths of disabled claimants should be dropped from Commonwealth Games sponsorship. A PETITION to the Scottish Parliament calling on the organising Committee of the 2014 Commonwealth Games to drop the ATOS sickness benefits assessment company as the games sponsors was heard by MSPs at Holyrood on Tuesday 18 March 2914. ATOS has been linked in the media to the deaths of hundreds of Scots & thousands of the disabled, ill, vulnerable & the elderly across the UK.

The petition, which readers are urged to support, calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the organising Committee to drop ATOS as a sponsor for the 2014 Commonwealth Games because ATOS have taken disability and sickness benefits away from poor and vulnerable people, reducing them to penury and extreme poverty.

The petition further states that “In addition, many people have died before the ATOS Fit for Work Assessment has been completed. The practices of this company are not compatible with Scottish social democratic values and therefore we call on the Petitions Committee to put our case to the Scottish Parliament so that the Parliament can reflect the opinions of many people in Scotland that ATOS be dropped as a sponsor for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.”

Sean Clerkin, and Iain MacInnes, Secretary, Glasgow against ATOS, gave evidence to msps on the practices of the ATOS company contracted by the Westminster ConDem coalition to cut benefits spending. ATOS have been widely linked in the media to deaths involving disability victims after they had been judged fit for work and had their benefits taken away.

Petitioner Sean Clerkin told MSPs he believed Atos were "contract killers" who were "not fit" to sponsor the 2014 Commonwealth Games, on 18 March 2014. Mr Clerkin's petition calls for the Scottish Parliament to urge the 2014 Commonwealth Games' organising committee to drop IT company Atos as a sponsor. He told the Public Petitions Committee the company, who assess whether benefits claimants are fit to work, were a "toxic brand".

Scottish Law Reporter has previously reported on difficulties in the benefits system, where it was revealed in an earlier report of the deaths of over ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE who had been declared ‘fit for work’ as a direct result of ‘fitness for work tests carried out by ATOS on the orders of the Conservative Liberal-Democrat Coalition Government in Westminster. Further reports on ATOS are HERE

In November 2012 The People's Review of the Work Capability Assessment was published by the Spartacus network of disability researchers and campaigners.

This supplementary report of December 2013, which Ekklesia is pleased to make available and endorse, contains further compelling evidence of the need for change.

After introducing the issues and the annual reviews of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), it documents the reality for those directly impacted: deaths and suicides; accounts from MPs and advisers; the direct experience of sick and disabled people; views expressed by medical and other professionals; opinions from public bodies,;views expressed by Church leaders; and views expressed by charities and Disabled People’s Organisations.

The report then looks at the policy context: the UK’s human rights obligations under UN conventions; monitoring of standards; the financial cost of the WCA; contractual and audit issues; work-related obligations and sanctions; training of WCA assessors; progress on the audio recording of assessments; the long-delayed 'Gold Standard' Evidence Based Review; the Court of Appeal ruling that the WCA is discriminatory; a final summary and conclusion. (72pp., PDF format)

The Sunday Mail newspaper has previously reported on how badly the UK Government & ATOS are treating Scots in need:

ATOS A SICK JOKE Sunday Mail 17 July 2011 A SICK JOKE : Benefits clawback firm promise 'brighter future' but victim speaks out

Jul 17 2011 Mark Aitken, Sunday Mail

A PRIVATE firm hired to slash benefits are promising "a brighter future" to claimants whose payouts are stopped. Atos Healthcare are being paid £100million a year by the Tories to reassess people on disability and sickness benefits and drive them back to work.

They pay doctors up to £60,000 a year to assess whether claimants are fit to work. In a job advert for doctors, they claim: "You could make the difference that gives someone on incapacity benefit a brighter future." The advert, published on the British Medical Journal website, adds: "It's a vitally important role that aims to change lives for the better."

Labour MP Tom Greatrex, who has campaigned on the issue, branded the ad as "insulting". The Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP said: "The Tory-led government need to get a grip on Atos as a matter of urgency. "This advert is an insult to the thousands of people across the country who have been let down by the shambolic way Atos conduct their assessments.

"The idea that Atos are giving people on incapacity benefit a brighter future would be laughable were it not causing so much distress and pain to those who have been unfortunate enough to go through the process of their assessments."Rather than advertising for more highly paid staff, the Tory-led government should demand Atos sort themselves out, so their assessments are fair and reasonable."

Last week, the Sunday Mail revealed bungled rulings were costing taxpayers £50million. Around 30,000 people appealed against their decisions, with 40 per cent of them successful, which has cost the government around £50million. But UK employment minister Chris Grayling has admitted no money has been claimed back from the firm for poor medical advice.

An Atos spokeswoman said: "We have no comment on the advert."

Chemo patient's despair at ruling : Maggie Mackay was assessed by Atos as "fit to work" when she was still recovering from chemotherapy. The 51-year-old, from Glengarnock, Ayrshire, was a furniture restorer before breast cancer stopped her in her tracks.

She had radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery but was then assessed as being to fit to work by Atos and taken off disability benefit. Maggie, who bravely took part in our Breast Cancer Care Fashion Show last year, has launched an appeal.

She said: "Two weeks ago I had more surgery as my scar was not healing properly. My side effects include fatigue, not being able to sleep, very sore bones and memory loss. "The young woman didn't seem interested. I can't squat because I have two slipped discs."But she wrote in her report that I could squat. She made out I was perfectly fit and healthy. "Everything you say is twisted to make out that you are fit for work. I now have £8 a day to live on."

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr Penning also claimed Atos would not receive "a single penny of compensation".

What nonsense is this about compensation - when do we get to hear about fines for the numerous appeals which have been successful and ATOS's conspicuos failures to assess such claimants properly?

Moreover, what sort of improvement can we expect if ATOS "will be transferring our infrastructure and employees to ensure consistency of service to those going through the process."


Anonymous said...

"There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty."
Margaret Thatcher
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Thatcher clearly meant by economic liberty her taxes won't pay survival money for the poor sick etc. The poor, mentally ill, terminally ill hammered by a extremist government. Healthy people without insight forget that they could be the next victims of these extremists just have a stroke or any other serious illness. People employed on the work programme are making life harder for their children when they grow up. The political theorist Hannah Arendt who escaped the Nazi's and was Jewish warned in the Origins of Totalitarianism that one day some government will want to kill off those they regard as useless feeders. I am not saying the ConDems will, that is madness, but what would they do if they had a free hand?

I have two degrees, no big deal there, and I am a tradesman. If I struggle to get a job what chance do many others have?

Atos are the face of the assassins, which company will want this poison chalice? We can ConDemAtos and rightly so but Clegg and Cameron are the directors they support the contract killers. The system need reforming but this is sick and evil.

Anonymous said...

Chemo patient's despair at ruling : Maggie Mackay was assessed by Atos as "fit to work" when she was still recovering from chemotherapy. The 51-year-old, from Glengarnock, Ayrshire, was a furniture restorer before breast cancer stopped her in her tracks.
===================================
Miss MacKay Atos are the face of Ian Duncan Smith and this vile labeling of people as shirkers and scroungers. Their aim it to turn the employed against the unemployed and sick. A young man who was blind, a man with no arm, a woman in a coma, are just a few who were told to find work. We don't just ConDemAtos this is Thatchers end goal, having people working for peanuts of zero hour contracts to enrich the elite as these politicians and their financiers see themselves. I see no difference between Salmond, Clegg, Cameron, Milliband and Farage. They all share the same vision.

Anonymous said...

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/alex-salmond-wants-to-give-atos-1322066

ALEX SALMOND has been slammed for wanting to give £3million of taxpayers’ money to the controversial firm behind “fit for work” tests on the disabled.

French firm Atos’ offices in Moray are on a list of “shovel ready projects” he wants handed public cash.

Atos have been at the centre of protests over their work capability assessments, which campaigners claim are “damaging and distressing”.

More than 20 SNP MSPs have signed a Holyrood motion expressing concern about the firm.

But the Atos offices in Forres – where they develop and test IT – are still on the SNP Government’s list of construction projects they want public investment for to boost the economy.

Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie yesterday challenged the First Minister to “clear up” the SNP’s position on Atos.

He said: “The SNP have dug themselves into a hole with their hypocritical position.

“The Government, with one face, condemn the company for their record on welfare reform but, with the other face, are more than happy to pay £3million towards the new Atos building in Forres.”

Rutherglen and Hamilton West Labour MP Tom Greatrex said the move was a “slap in the face” to disabled people who had suffered because of Atos assessments.

A spokeswoman for Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon pointed out that the Atos project in Moray was designed to retrain staff following the closure of RAF Kinloss.

She said: “This attack is backfiring badly on Willie Rennie. It is his party’s coalition with the Tories that is behind the work capability assessment and the closure of RAF Kinloss.”

Anonymous said...

http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/sturgeon-in-disability-row-over-2014-games.19901247

Sunday 13 January 2013

DEPUTY First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is being targeted by protesters who want the controversial "fit-for-work" benefits test company Atos dropped as a sponsor of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Around 15 demonstrators carrying "Atos Kills" posters invaded a constituency surgery in Sturgeon's Glasgow Southside seat on Friday to demand an end to the deal.

The peaceful protest ended after police were called to the Larkfield Centre in Govanhill but there were no arrests.
==================================
I detest the ConDems and Sturgeon, Salmond and MacAskill. These people no matter what bullshit they speak are not friends of Scotland.

Anonymous said...

Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent
The Guardian, Tuesday 2 April 2013 19.06 BST

Iain Duncan Smith calls petition for him to live on £53 a week a stunt
Work and pensions secretary insists he has twice lived on breadline after online petition secures nearly 300,000 signatures.

Iain Duncan Smith has spoken of how he signed on the dole in 1981 at the height of the recession. He says he faced another period of unemployment in the late 1980s.

Iain Duncan Smith has dismissed an online petition calling on him to live on £53 a week on the grounds that he has experienced life on the breadline during two periods of unemployment.

As the petition hosted at www.change.org secured nearly 300,000 signatures, the work and pensions secretary told his local newspaper that it was a distraction because he had already lived on the equivalent of low benefits.

The petition says: "This petition calls for Iain Duncan Smith, the current Work and Pensions Secretary, to prove his claim of being able to live on £7.57 a day, or £53 a week."

Duncan Smith told the Wanstead and Woodford Guardian: "This is a complete stunt which distracts attention from the welfare reforms which are much more important and which I have been working hard to get done. I have been unemployed twice in my life so I have already done this. I know what it is like to live on the breadline."

Duncan Smith came under pressure after he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday that he could live on £53 after he was asked about a market trader, David Bennett, who claimed that he had to live on that amount after his housing benefit was cut. "If I had to, I would," Duncan Smith replied.

He has spoken of how he signed on the dole after leaving the Scots Guards in 1981 at the height of the recession. He experienced another period of unemployment in the late 1980s when he lost his job as marketing director of the property firm Bellwinch.

The Daily Mail reported Duncan Smith as saying: "It was a shock – absolutely awful. I felt pathetic. I remember telling my wife. We looked at each other and she said: 'God, what are we going to do for money?'"

Duncan Smith's wife, Betsy, is the daughter of the 5th Baron Cottesloe who served as lord-lieutenant of Buckinghamshire in the 1980s and 1990s. Duncan Smith and his wife, who sent their children to Eton, moved into Lord Cottesloe's 17th-century Old House in the village of Swanbourne in Buckinghamshire in 2002. His in-laws moved into smaller accommodation to make way for the Duncan Smiths and their four children.

Smith claimed he was on the breadline, a lie just like his CV.

Anonymous said...

A friend of Duncan Smith said: "Iain is the last person to be flippant about this. He does not take lightly living on £53 a week. He was asked a specific question and he said yes he would live on £53 if he had to.

"Iain is passionate about [his welfare reforms]. He came back on to the frontbench to do this. This is a man who visited Easterhouse [estate outside Glasgow] and saw poverty first hand and felt so compelled to do something about it that he set up the Centre for Social Justice."
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Smith does not hate the working poor, he hates the unemployed and sick poor. His moral mission is to get the unemployed and and sick poor off benefits and into zero hour contract jobs. When do we hear him talking about the working poor? Never.

Anonymous said...

My Atos assessor was covered in tattoos, a nurse and I am fortunate in that I am getting better so I told her what she wanted to hear. Utter scum not for what happened to me, I am fine it is the people with serious illness they are destroying.

They no longer recognize disability, you cannot claim disability benefit any more. Only Employment Support Allowance. Atos staff if you get cancer the next ConDem assassins will reward you. In many cases what goes around comes around. You will reap your nemesis too politicians.

Anonymous said...

The Daily Mail reported Duncan Smith as saying: "It was a shock – absolutely awful. I felt pathetic. I remember telling my wife. We looked at each other and she said: 'God, what are we going to do for money?'"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
People on zero hour contracts have the same concerns, but IDS thinks F**k them. If we could all be entrepreneurs Mr Smith who would work to generate the wealth. You are an odious man. Thatcher urged people to "glory in inequality". We are heading for workhouse Britain.

Anonymous said...

In the USA if someone has Tuberculosis the state will treat them. A poor man coughing all over a rich man's family is the reason. But if you lose a finger or break a leg and you are poor tough.

Anonymous said...

The Daily Mail reported Duncan Smith as saying: "It was a shock – absolutely awful. I felt pathetic. I remember telling my wife. We looked at each other and she said: 'God, what are we going to do for money?'
*********************************
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9964767/Iain-Duncan-Smith-I-could-live-on-53-per-week.html

Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said it would be possible to live on so little, after a benefits claimant told the BBC he gets by on £53 per week after housing costs.

The senior Tory was put on the spot as he defended the need for billions of pounds in cuts to the welfare budget because of the country's "economic mess".

Labour has branded yesterday the start of "Black April" as a number of cuts and freezes in benefits and tax credits took effect on April 1.

However, Mr Duncan Smith criticised those who portray the changes as "attacking" and "slashing" benefits, arguing the Coalition is "reforming" the system to make it "fair".

Speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme, Mr Duncan Smith said limiting the rise in benefits to one per cent this year is a better deal than many people are getting in countries like Ireland and Portugal. But of course Ideologically Driven Smith is not living it. He uses comparative politics, we British have a better deal than the countries but Smith is NOT living on £53.00 a week is he. He has not ever been on the breadline, for him to claim so is vile and a complete stunt. They will be saving money for Zyklon-B.

Anonymous said...

Duncan Smith told the Wanstead and Woodford Guardian: "This is a complete stunt which distracts attention from the welfare reforms which are much more important and which I have been working hard to get done. I have been unemployed twice in my life so I have already done this. I know what it is like to live on the breadline."
==================================
The first time Mr Smith was unemployed he was dating Betsy and the second time he was married to Betsy, so he has never been on the breadline. And he has no moral mission to help the working poor. I ConDemSmith as a liar who makes a million a year from speeches who has never been on the breadline. For him to claim he has is vile and a complete stunt.

Anonymous said...

These politicians are the same as the Nazi's, they would bring in the Einzatsgruppen or rebuild the gas factories if they could get away with it. Smith's idea to charge £260.00 for appeals is simply a way to cut benefits permanently. Make no mistake these Neoliberals want rid of everyone thay costs money irrespective of their circumstances. In Germany Himmler believed he was compassionate not evil. He turned an economic problem [feeding the non productive] into a medical problem [better to kill them and put them out of their misery] so euthanasia was to end the suffering of the sick not to save the state money.

Death by suicide is not murder but the ConDems would murder if they could. What is happening now is a warning.

Anonymous said...

Atos are not assessors,they decide the outcome of the tests before the person arrives at their premises.

Anonymous said...

These politicians and Atos are our enemies. How can someone with epilepsy for example be found fit for work. If they have to go to the Job Centre the issue is will any employer hire them? These politicians are at war with the poor and sick. Their goal is not to reform the welfare system but to demolish it because they will never need it.

Anonymous said...

Cameron, Clegg, Milliband, Smith, Salmond Sturgeon are all the political faces of Atos. The latter two supports Atos, don't assume that Scotland will be better independent with these two in charge. The love Atos and The Law Society, same thing.

Anonymous said...

They want rid of what they regard as Untermenchen.

Anonymous said...

Public and Commercial Services union general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said the assessments were "designed to harass vulnerable people and take their benefits away rather than provide support and guidance".
==================================
Yes the man is right, it is not about getting well paid jobs. The ConDems realise they have to cut of the money supply to these people because even those who can work are not going to get jobs they can live on. What we have is inverse Socialism robbing the most vulnerable in society while letting corporations avoid tax, bankers avoid trial never mind jail. It is now a crime in the UK to be ill or unemployed. And working for benefits is a gift to business, which will devalue the wages of those employed by providing cheap labour. Rich when politicians claim expenses for riding pedal bikes. One law for those bastards and the machinery to drive the most vulnerable to suicide.

The Bedroom Tax is an attack on affordable housing, another attempt to strip money from the vulnerable. They sold off the utilities too so we are held to ransom, pay up or the lights go out. Thatcher, "there is no such thing as society" stand on your own economic feet or starve. Thatcher would have loved what Atos do, culling the most vulnerable because they are superfluous to the Neoliberals.

Anonymous said...

'We were wrong': Government admits it should not have axed disability benefits of Asperger's sufferer who starved to death just five months later weighing five-and-a-half stone

A controversial decision to cut the benefits of a man who later starved to death was wrong, the Government admitted today. Mark Wood, 44, weighed just five-and-a-half stone when he died after staff from Government contractor Atos assessed him as being fit to work - despite suffering from more than seven disabilities and illnesses, including Asperger's syndrome. His income was cut to just £40 a week in March last year and he was ordered find employment. He died just five months later. Today a spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions confessed the decision was wrong, sparking an internal review.
===============================================
Evil ConDems DWP and Atos.

Anonymous said...

The LabConDem Party, bureaucratic murderers, all responsible for Atos Macht Frei.