Disability benefit test provider may finally have contract terminated

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Northerner

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The Government may soon terminate its contract with controversial firm Atos which currently carries out the ?fitness for work? tests on disabled benefit claimants.

Atos has come under heavy fire for its handling of work capability assessments, which are used to gauge eligibility for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Incapacity Benefit.

Labour MP Dennis Skinner called for the Prime Minister David Cameron to ?get rid? of Atos in October, describing the company as a ?cruel heartless monster.? There have also been questions over the application of their tests, with claims that people are being wrongly recommended for work, or put through stressful medical interviews.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...finally-have-contract-terminated-9136353.html
 
About damned time! I dread to think what they might replace it with though, I bet it won't be any less inhumane.
 
AlisonM said:
About damned time! I dread to think what they might replace it with though, I bet it won't be any less inhumane.
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Therein lies the problem, I think. Private organisations are going to be given targets to achieve, by hook or by crook, to match political aims, not provide genuine help and assessments. If these things were done genuinely then 42% wouldn't fail on appeal - how much is being wasted on all that?
 
As I have said here a number of times, I've been through this process twice, gone to appeal twice and won twice. I'm afraid of going through it all again, but will have to next year when the last appeal decision expires and I've no doubt it will be more of the same. The system, with or without Atos is wrong, it doesn't work and blaming Atos is not entirely fair. We have to remember that they have a contract which specifies certain targets that have to be met, other targets apply to the DWP staff making the decisions. It is these targets that need to be scrapped and people's needs measured on the reality of their situation. Examinations need to be carried out not just by a 'qualified professional' but someone with a 'relevant qualification, it's pointless having someone with mental/emotional issues examined by a physiotherapist. These targets are the main problem though, they need to be scrapped and folk treated honestly, it would save a load of money in appeals if the decisions were fair and unbiased. Above all, people need to be treated with dignity and the whole process made less adversarial.

But all this is just a pipe dream, the 'new' system will no doubt be as bad as the current one.
 
People stripped of benefits could be charged for challenging decision

People who have been stripped of benefits could be charged by the government for trying to appeal against the decision to an independent judge.

Critics said the proposal, contained in an internal Department for Work and Pensions document leaked to the Guardian, would hit some of the poorest people in Britain, who have been left with little or no income.

In the document about the department's internal finances, officials say the "introduction of a charge for people making appeals against [DWP] decisions to social security tribunals" would raise money.


http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/20/people-stripped-benefits-charged-decision

Unbelievable! 😱 :(
 
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