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    WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Post by Kitkat Thu 05 Dec 2013, 11:06

    YES WELFARE NEEDS REFORM – BUT AT WHAT COST?

    I am putting this in the Skeptics Korner, as I believe it to be an appropriate area where anyone who considers themselves a skeptic in the true sense of the word ought to be actively involved - an area which affects every single one of us in this country [directly, or indirectly] at some stage or other in our lives and that of our families.

    This very harrowing link  needs no further detail, other than to read each and every linked story in connection with the [so far] 34 suicidal deaths that have occurred since the introduction of these Drachonian new welfare laws.

    LINK:  http://calumslist.org/

    Please: Can Government repair welfare reform so that no more families, nor friends have the names of their loved ones placed on this Memorial Page? Thankyou.

    Welfare Reform Death Toll 34.

    The list where welfare reform is alleged to have some culpability …
    Please read the link above, for this is something that every single person should know about - and help to spread the awareness to those who do not - or indeed, care not.  

    (My thanks to Krazy Kats member 'watchman' here for supplying the link.)


    YOU, dear Reader, CAN do something positive, poignant and immediate - to help in this dreadful state of affairs, by signing RIGHT NOW - TODAY the PETITION which can be found HERE.

    By putting your signature to this Petition, you as an individual have NOTHING to lose, but YOUR signature could mean so much to some other(s) of your fellow human beings, who may well have SO MUCH to gain - and could even mean keeping a name (or names) from being added to that dreadful list linked above.


    PLEASE help - as the Petition states:
    Stop The Welfare Reform Death Scandal!

    To: The Department of Work and Pensions and their private companies eg ATOS

    The flawed Work Capability Assessment is causing 32 unnecessary deaths a week by forcing the long term sick and disabled into work or work-related activity.  It is also causing untold misery and fear for the country's most vulnerable. We call for its cessation now and to be replaced by a more holistic and humane system.
    A further detailed update can be found in my Blog section of this forum, where you can read and keep up to date with the Work and Benefits regular Newsletters, the most recent of which is dated 3rd December 2013 - and can be found HERE.  



    Thank you for reading. PLEASE sign the PETITION and please continue to spread the awareness.

    Also, please feel free to come inside here to discuss your thoughts, views and opinions on this subject.
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Re: WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Post by Kitkat Wed 18 Dec 2013, 18:26

    Latest news from the Work and Benefits site:

    In this edition we have the most revealing insight yet of the fear and hatred DWP ministers appear to feel for claimants. A sullen and angry Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud turned up to the Work and Pensions Select Committee last week surrounded by bodyguards and armed police, who proceeded to point their machine guns directly at the small group of disabled claimants waiting to go into the public gallery.
     
    Sadly, at the committee meeting itself, IDS seems to have entirely wriggled off the hook in relation to fake statistics, unfair sanctions and the universal credit fiasco.

    Elsewhere, there is a report by Kaliya Franklin that suggests that the imposition of ‘norms’ in the work capability assessment ensures unfair outcomes and the People’s Review of the same test illustrates the real human suffering it causes.

    Moving on to Personal Independence Payment, there’s the dispiriting news that terminally ill cancer patients will have to rely on a ministers assurances that he can use his boots to kick the DWP into paying PIP within 7 days, whilst whistleblowers and claimants reveal the true extent of PIP medical assessment chaos.


    Read this Newsletter online
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Re: WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Post by Kitkat Wed 18 Dec 2013, 22:25

    Watch Iain Duncan Smith SNEAK OUT of food banks debate as Tories LAUGH at stories of starving families

    Looks at first glance like a sensational headline fed to tug at the heart strings of a tabloid-reading audience.  
    Yeah, well - "sensational" it may well be, but not the type of sensation too many would crave to experience.  It's a sensational disgrace, and that's a recorded FACT.   annoyed    judge 

    Full story & video here: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/food-banks-debate-video-iain-2941100
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty ATOS NATIONAL DEMO

    Post by Kitkat Wed 05 Feb 2014, 17:43

    Atos National Demo - taking place at various venues throughout the UK

    on Wednesday 19 February 2014, 8:00am start


    Check out the link for the event nearest to you:  

    http://atoskills.tk/

    Protest at an Atos centre near you about Atos’ appalling work capability assessment and the people who have suffered and died.


    A PEACEFUL DEMO WHERE ALL ARE INVITED TO TAKE PART AND SHOW ATOS THAT NO MORE DEATHS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
    THERE WILL BE A GROUP WHO ARE GOING TO TAKE DIRECT ACTION AND THIS IS SOMETHING OF PERSONAL CHOICE.

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? 1888488_563725070390563_1240426854_n
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Re: WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Post by Kitkat Tue 11 Feb 2014, 11:18

    Well, I had planned to be taking part on the day of the Demonstration. One of the Houses of Horror where a big protest is planned is the one that I had to attend - two years ago, the place that made the decision where followed two of the most stressful and hellish years of my life - waiting for the Appeal to overturn that decision. I won the Appeal, but the damage that has been done in the meantime can never be rectified.
    I wanted to be there - if only to say 'I told you so'. I wanted revenge. Wanted to stick chewing gum on all the seats and spit on all their shiny windows ....

    but ...

    only this morning got a phonecall fixing up an appointment for works to be done at home, replacing a dangerous old boiler with a new combi thingy - which means I will have hot water on tap 24 hours now, rather than previously putting it on here and there and waiting for the tank to fill up, then empty not long after, then fill up again .... I've been waiting a long time for these replacement works to be done. It's a 2-day job, and I really don't want to have to be on yet another waiting list, so seems now unlikely that I'll be putting in an appearance on the day. Part of me feels in a way that it is probably 'meant' anyway ... (the time the contractors are set to arrive is the exact start time of the Demonstration!)
    I would probably end up getting arrested on the day - for menacing with a walking stick or some other crime passionnel.  annoyed   shtum  so probably just as well really.
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Re: WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Post by Kitkat Wed 19 Feb 2014, 19:02

    NATIONAL ATOS PROTESTS 19-2-14:  AN INTERVIEW WITH TOM SMITH, THE  MAN WHO MADE IT HAPPEN

    http://www.southleedslife.com/national-atos-protests-19-2-14-interview-tom-smith-man-made-happen/#.UwTz3YUhvYE

    Transcript:

    TS: I decided just before Christmas that I wanted to set up a demonstration against ATOS in Leeds so I put the idea out there on Facebook. A colleague of mine, Paul Kelly says, “Look, we’ve got something like 30,000 people saying they want to get involved, we should think about making it national”. So after some deliberation we decided, “Right, let’s go for all 140 ATOS centres in the UK”. Now, some of them won’t have anyone there today, but ATOS have had to bring in lots of extra security to every single centre today – so it’s a hindrance to them – but my main reason is not to disrupt ATOS but to try and start a ripple effect in the public’s understanding of what is happening. After seeing Channel 4’s Dispatches programme ‘On The Sick’, I said to my wife, “I’m going to do something about this. I don’t know what – but I’m going to do something”. So I started to investigate what was happening. As I dug deeper I was brought to tears by what I was finding out.

    JC: What was your own experience of the ATOS process?

    TS: I went through my ATOS process in January here at the Leeds Assessment Centre we’re stood outside now. I’m one of the lucky ones who didn’t lose their claim, but even so, I was called in to reception and spoken to by the receptionist like I was something you wouldn’t scrape off your shoe. So I thought, “Alright, here we go…”. I got called in to the assessment room, and it was a nurse who it turned out had just been in the country a month. I asked her in what way was she qualified to assess me – a person with complicated syndromes. Her response: “because I’ve done the ATOS training course” – the training course only lasts a couple of weeks. I have COPD, chronic nerve damage to the left leg, growths on my hips, a prolapsed spine, I have PTSD, and I have a personality disorder. How could a nurse make an assessment of me? As it turned out, she didn’t even ask me any questions. She wrote down what was on my prescription and said to go. It was the most humiliating experience I’ve ever had in my life. First of all, you’re absolutely terrified. My first appointment was cancelled by ATOS because I arrived in this very car park 3 and a half minutes late.

    ATOS pay their staff £50 for every client they get through within the half hour. They get paid a further £50 if they manage to get that person off disability benefits. Now, if I told you I’d pay you extra money to do something, it’s fairly obvious what you’d do. And they’re only allowed to pass 12.3% of the people that they see. This is what the doctor who went to the training centre in the Channel 4 Dispatches programme was actually told. It beggars belief – at the end of the day these are mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, children, uncles, aunties – and they’ve been demonised by this Tory government and by the Tory press so people have started to see them as not human and therefore they become desensitised. This country has always supported its weak and vulnerable. But then Iain Duncan Smith comes in and, basically, he is doing a cull. It’s estimated by the next general election, 60,000 people will have died as a result of this policy – there are some very uncomfortable historical equivalents to that kind of thing happening. I don’t see how you can tell people who are dying from cancer that it is their own fault.

    JC: What do you think about the post on the ATOS website about the protests today where they’re saying they’re just following the government’s orders ? – quote: “We have been conducting assessments for benefits for over 15 years based on the policies and processes set by successive governments.”

    TS: I think if you read between the lines that they’re accepting the guilt for what they have done. They’ve said in that blog that the protesters should not focus on the staff, because the staff do not make the policy. It’s ATOS that makes the policy and it’s ATOS that’s at fault.

    The tears would come flooding for anyone who listens to the stories. There was a guy in Leeds who was an activist on these issues. He hung himself at the end of last year. And then the case of the man in Bradford who was appealing against ATOS’s decision. He didn’t have any money for 10 months. The day he finally got his money the poor guy died in his flat in Bradford. He had no heating. He hadn’t eaten properly for months. He was literally skin and bone – like someone from Belsen. How we, the general public, can sit back and let this happen I really don’t know.

    At the end of the day, yes, I’ve sparked this demo and planted the seed, but 4,500 people are involved with just the setting up. It’s come from the ground up.

       If anyone ever tells you that one person can’t make a change then have a look at this demo. I was the one person who planted that little seed, and the response has been overwhelming. It humbles you. Within about 3 hours of putting the idea online I had about 4,000 emails asking how can I get involved.

    Yesterday, me and Joe Salmon were doing an interview for Radio Aire. About 20 minutes after, our phones were ringing and ringing with BBC Radio up and down the country wanting to cover the protests. I stood there and looked at Joe and burst into tears. I thought, what have we done?! They reckon on expecting 60 here today in Leeds, but I reckon they’re in for a shock – there’s going to be a hell of a lot more. You’ve got individuals who’ve said they’re coming, then the NUS, Unite the Union, Unison, NHS groups, Labour and Green party councillors too. In London we’ve got people like Hilary Benn, Dennis Skinner and John McDonald because today is Prime Minister’s Questions. My local MP, Phil Davies, who was very critical of the disabled a few weeks ago saying we’re all scroungers and should get up and work has emailed me to say he now supports the campaign.

    The government have lost touch with reality – they don’t know what’s going on. Anyone who’s got a family member or a friend affected by this policy will have seen how the policy is taking away people’s dignity. People are literally having to go and beg. I know a demonstrator down on the south coast having to get by on £7 a week. You can’t do that – it’s physically impossible. But Iain Duncan Smith and the DWP think that is a satisfactory income.

    JC: What will solve this? Will it be the next general election now that Labour have come out strongly against the policy? Or might it change before then?

    TS: Labour brought ATOS in in the first place, but not to do what the Tories have got them doing. ATOS, who are a French IT company, have lost the contract – that was announced yesterday. But another French IT company are coming in to take over the contract – it doesn’t make sense! As for the next election, I think Labour will get in. The Tories have pushed things so far that even the middle classes are starting to realise that things have gone too far. With any movement, you can have the students involved, the working class, but it’s only when the middle classes get involved that something will really happen. I would love to think that this demonstration is the thing that starts a ripple effect. There are people from all different walks of life getting involved in it – if they haven’t already been affected they’re starting to realise, “it could be me next”. Pastor Martin Niemöller got it right when he said, “Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they got rid of the sick, the so-called incurables, and I did not speak out because I was not sick. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.”

    It’s atrocious that anyone should defend a French IT company – one who paid no tax on their £120 billion income last year – making these decisions on people’s lives. It should be people’s own GPs who know them and understand properly what they can and cannot do. It’s a sad state of affairs, but hopefully today will raise the awareness. People are going to stand up and say, “We’re not going to take this anymore – we’re not going to stand by while this is happening to the sick and vulnerable in my country”. The disability payments only equate to 1.8% of the total amount the government pays out on benefits. The amount of actual cheating to get benefits payments is like 0.02% of the total. It’s nothing compared to tax evasion, such as by ATOS. The 8% pay raise the MPs just gave themselves would pay for all Disability Living Allowance for 6 months.

    We’re hoping to have BBC Look North, ITV, Sky, Russia Today and others covering the demonstrations today. It’s really interesting to think about why the BBC are covering this. They haven’t covered any demonstrations in the last couple of years. November the 5th – 4,000 people out – no coverage. Thousands out in Manchester for the NHS rallies – no coverage. But they want to get really involved in this. Why? There’s lots of interesting things going on. ATOS putting out their blog message – that’s not normal behaviour for a multi-million pound corporation. Police forces up and down the country are actually saying they support us – they are also seeing ATOS starting to take over parts of their operation so they see the dangers too.

    Enough is enough – no more. We’re not going to sit back any more.

    Article written by Tom Cockburn - http://www.southleedslife.com/communityreporters/



    and ... from the ATOS website:  

    We know a lot of discussion is taking place at the moment online and in the media in advance of protests to be held at Atos Healthcare sites on the 19th February.  We fully respect people’s right to peaceful protest.  However, we want to make sure that it is clear to everyone what our role is, and also the routes available to people for more specific queries or concerns about individual assessments.

    We understand that people may have very strong personal opinions about whether the Work Capability Assessment or welfare policy is fair.  Peaceful protests are a way of raising attention to issues they would like action on.

    However, Atos Healthcare has no control over welfare policy, the design of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), or the specific eligibility criteria for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).  These are set by government.  Our healthcare professionals use their clinical judgement in order to apply the government-designed criteria and they do not have the scope to make any assessment outside of these guidelines.
    ................

    We have no targets in relation to the outcome of benefit claims either at an individual or overall level.

    ................

    We would ask that any protest activity is peaceful and does not threaten our staff or our customers who may be attending assessments on the day.
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Re: WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Post by Kitkat Fri 21 Feb 2014, 07:33

    and the latest ...

    in The Guardian yesterday:

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

    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.

    Other ideas include selling off child support debt to "the private sector to collect", though civil servants remark that the government would be unlikely to raise more than 5-7p in the pound from the £1.4bn currently owed to the DWP. The department currently collects arrears.

    Earlier this week figures showed that in the past year nearly 900,000 people have had their benefits stopped, the highest figure for any 12-month period since jobseeker's allowance was introduced in 1996. In recent months, however, 58% of those who wanted to overturn DWP sanction decisions in independent tribunals have been successful. Before 2010, the success rate of appeals was 20% or less.

    One welfare legal adviser said the number of appeals being lodged at independent tribunals would be decimated if the government introduced a charge.

    Last year the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) which sets policy in the area, brought in charges for employment tribunals of up to £250 to lodge a claim, depending on the kind of case being brought. The union Unison asked judges to review the policy, saying the number of claims had dropped by more than half after fees were introduced. High court judges declared the policy lawful this month.

    In the DWP Efficiency Review, which is marked "restricted", it says the proposal for charging for social security tribunals is already "under investigation" by the MoJ and officials "intend to revisit it" in the wake of the Unison court challenge decision.

    However, the 80-page document points out, the policy will "entail no revenue generation nor efficiency for the [DWP] per se" but will however generate income for the justice department.

    The policy proposal leak comes as the prime minister and senior religious leaders clash over the benefits system. In a letter to the Daily Mirror, 27 Anglican bishops blamed David Cameron for creating a "national crisis" in which hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to survive on the charity of food banks because of "punitive sanctions" and other DWP failures. It followed similar criticisms from Vincent Nichols, the highest ranking Catholic in England and Wales, that the government was stripping away the welfare safety net – a charge dismissed as "an exaggeration" by Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister.

    The justice minister Shailesh Vara said: "The government has made clear that reducing the deficit is our top priority. It is right that the Ministry of Justice looks at all opportunities to bring down the cost of our services to the taxpayer.

    "We believe that it is right to consider whether those who use tribunals should make a greater contribution to their costs, where they can afford to do so, which is why we introduced fees for employment tribunals last year.

    "We will continue to keep the position under review, but we have no current plans to extend fee charging into other tribunals."

    Rachel Reeves, shadow work and pensions secretary, said: "When government's own figures show a staggering 58% of appeals against Department for Work and Pensions decisions to dock jobseeker's allowance are upheld, it's clear the system is broken. Rather than penalising thousands of people by charging them to appeal, ministers need to ask why they are presiding over a broken system which is making so many bad decisions, which are overturned on appeal."

    Steve Winyard, head of policy and campaigns at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, which is threatening the DWP with legal action over sanction failures, said: "Every week RNIB receives complaints about DWP failing to provide correspondence and other benefits information in Braille or other accessible formats.

    "As a result, these people are at direct risk of sanction and a number have had the benefits they rely on to live withdrawn. To now say that these individuals will not even be able to appeal the inaccurate DWP decision without paying for it is a disgrace, It's a 'computer says no' approach that locks people out and leaves some with no help whatsoever, many becoming reliant on food banks as a result."

    Neil Bateman, a long-serving welfare rights lawyer, also described the policy idea as a disgrace. He said: "Stopping people from challenging bad decisions actually strikes at the heart of our democratic arrangement." He said many of the people he had successfully represented over the years at tribunals would not have got justice if they had been made to pay a fee and that even £5 would be too high a charge for them.

    Bateman said that from his experience, a very high proportion of appeals were caused by mistakes and poor-quality decision-making by the DWP. He said this had risen in recent years because the department had got rid of experienced DWP decision-makers, social security law had become more complex and attitudes had changed.

    "Under this government there is an attitudinal issue in terms of evidence of increased DWP staff antipathy towards clients and that all results in decisions which are wrong which eventually get turned over at appeal," Bateman said.

    The thing is here, had I not gone through and actually experienced for myself the actualities of these past two years, the stresses, anxieties and sheer injustices - on TOP of the physical pains, restrictions and miseries, having lost my job and becoming unfit to work because of this, let alone the mental anguishes all of this entailed, two bereavements during this period and all the other obstacles flung into the equation ...... I would have read this article - and thought, yes - there should be a charge for using the court services to bring tribunals for appeals etc, just as there are in other court cases.
    I would have read this statement "He said many of the people he had successfully represented over the years at tribunals would not have got justice if they had been made to pay a fee and that even £5 would be too high a charge for them." and thought it to be an exaggeration, a whinge of the lazy 'complaining & blaming club'. It is NOT! It is NO exaggeration. It is FACT for which I have had my PROOF - and I am most definitely not alone in this, as so many recent revelations are proving.
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty BW Newsletter 26 February 2014

    Post by Kitkat Wed 26 Feb 2014, 14:28

    From the latest BW Newsletter - 26th February 2014:

    First the DWP leaked documents  suggesting it was planning to ditch Atos as the provider of WCAs.

    Then Atos announced that it had actually been trying to negotiate an early exit from the WCA contract, due to end in 2015, for months anyway.

    Now comes the news that Atos is no longer being allowed to do repeat ESA assessments.
    It's beginning to look like the acrimonious end of a long-term relationship. But as Atos and the DWP turn on each other, claimants are being dragged into the row, accused of hundreds of episodes of abuse and assaults against Atos staff in the course of a single year.

    It's a claim that we've never heard before and about which we're highly sceptical.  It's also one that Atos are so far refusing to answer any of our questions about.

    But then they may be too busy to talk to us whilst trying to set up two new companies, OH Assist and Performe Health, in an attempt to salvage something from what appears to be the wreck of their healthcare reputation and leave the name of Atos far behind them.
    Read more HERE
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Benefits and Work Newsletter 12 March 2014

    Post by Kitkat Thu 13 Mar 2014, 14:38

    From the Benefits & Work site (Newsletter 12 March 2014)

    You can  read this Newsletter online

    According to freedom of information requests made by the Guardian, Capita are still making millions from persuading councils up and down the country to use their discredited lie detector software on benefit claimants.

    This is despite the fact that the system was originally developed by Israeli intelligence for use on terrorists, not people needing help with paying the rent.  

    And it’s also despite the fact that even the DWP say the telephone-based voice risk analysis software isn’t reliable.  Independent experts have even compared it to astrology.
    What it does do very reliably, however, is increase the impression that claimants should be treated like criminals . . . and make a mint for Capita, of course.

    Disturbing phone calls of a different kind have been reported by blogger and support group claimant Lisa Egan.  She was called by her local Jobcentre to ask what her ‘aims’ were and quizzed about her former employment as a stand-up comedian.  We’d like to know if other support group members have been contacted by their Jobcentre and asked about their employment prospects.

    Though employment, or the lack of it, may soon affect more than just your income and social standing.  If Dame Carol Black has her way it will also affect your chances of getting treated in a reasonable timescale by your local hospital.

    Dame Black, inventor of the ‘fit note’ wants to start a national debate about whether the NHS should prioritise treatment for sick workers over those who don’t have a job.  

    In other words, if you’re unemployed there’s less point in giving you prompt medical treatment if there are economically active people also waiting for help.  Astonishingly, the chief medical officer at the DWP appears to agree that this is an issue that needs to be discussed.


    ESA NEWS

    In the last newsletter we revealed that the DWP have temporarily stopped referring ESA claimants to Atos for repeat medical assessments.  At the time nobody was prepared to officially confirm that this was true.  Now, however, after Benefits and Work and our exclusive news was raised in the House of Commons, both a  government minister and Atos have admitted that it is true.

    In other ESA news, the government has announced that Dr Paul Litchfield is to carry out the fifth independent review of the work capability assessment (WCA).  Though so little change has come about as a result of previous reviews that it’s unlikely to attract much enthusiasm from claimants this time around.

    And the minister for disabled people, Mike Penning, has apologised "unreservedly" to the family of Sheila Holt after she was sent letters demanding she make an effort to find work even though she was in a coma.


    PIP AND DLA NEWS

    The pressure on the DWP to improve Personal Independence Payment (PIP) delivery has increased following the publication of the National Audit Office’s report on the implementation of PIP.

    The report was critical of the backlogs and delays in assessments, and most especially of Atos, as well as delays in the process of decision making. Not only are claims taking an average of 74 days to be decided, compared to 37 days for DLA, but each claim is costing an average of £182 to administer, more than three times the cost of DLA at £49.


    BEDROOM TAX NEWS

    On the first anniversary of the bedroom tax, Unite Community and several other London groups concerned with poverty and injustice, are calling people together to protest against this disastrous policy and other welfare cuts.

    The 'Bedroom Tax Demonstration - One Year On'  is taking place on 5th April at 1pm at One Hyde Park, Knightsbridge

    The campaign's Facebook page urges “End it now! Stop attacking social security, stop demonizing those who receive it”


    OTHER NEWS

    Iain Duncan Smith's department has been caught misusing official figures for the fourth time in a year. This time they tried to defend the Work Programme in front of the Work and Pensions Committee by using unpublished data which the MPs had not had a chance to study, in breach of government rules.

    Though, if Universal Jobmatch is anything to go by, it's hardly surprising that the Work Programme isn't working.  Frank Field MP has revealed that around half the vacancies on the government website are either bogus, falsely promoted or against the rules.

    Meanwhile, Atos are showing their usual flair for public relations by trying to get Facebook pages critical of their new company, OH Assist, taken down  - on the breath-taking grounds that they incite hatred against their staff.
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Re: WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Post by Kitkat Mon 19 May 2014, 13:10

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? 3Qa4X0o
    Umberto Cocopop
    Umberto Cocopop

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Re: WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Post by Umberto Cocopop Mon 19 May 2014, 15:54

    As subtle as ever!
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Hundreds of thousands hit by benefits backlog (report from 11.6.14)

    Post by Kitkat Wed 11 Jun 2014, 17:32

    Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected by a benefits backlog, the government has said.

    More than 700,000 people are waiting for assessments for employment and support allowance (ESA), it said.

    Minister for Disabled People Mike Penning blamed the delays on Atos, the contractor carrying out controversial fitness-to-work tests.

    Atos has said its staff have been "vilified" and abused for doing what was asked of them by ministers.

    Asked in Parliament about implementation of benefits reform, Prime Minister David Cameron said changes should be carried out "in a way that works well" rather than to an "artificial deadline".

    He was responding to a question by Labour MP Katy Clark, who asked why the majority of those who had applied for the personal independence payment (PIP) had yet to receive a decision.

    PIP started to replace the disability living allowance from April 2013.

    Backlog falling

    An official from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) told MPs that Atos, which has agreed to end its contract early, "couldn't deliver the quality at the capacity we want".

    However, a DWP spokesperson later said Atos was "now processing more cases than come in" and the backlog was falling.

    The DWP said the total backlog stood at 712,000 people. Of these, 394,000 are new claimants for ESA and 234,000 are existing ESA recipients whose reassessments as to whether they are still entitled to the benefit have been delayed.

    A further 84,000 are people still on incapacity benefit who have not yet been moved over to ESA.

    Mr Penning said the government had failed to meet its own deadline of moving these people onto the new benefit by April.

    They are still awaiting assessment.

    The DWP said: "Incapacity Benefit reassessment has resulted in over 700,000 people looking for, or making steps to return to work - it is crucial that we continue this important process to ensure that people are not written off and we get a fair deal for the taxpayer."

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? _75450926_151065895
    Protest against Atos in 2012 Atos has faced protests about its role in delivering welfare changes in the UK

    Critics have said delays and wrong decisions in Atos's work conducting controversial fitness-to-work assessments have caused distress to vulnerable people.

    Atos has acknowledged difficulties but said its staff are well trained and it has become a "lightning rod" for public anger with the principle of the assessments.

    Citizens Advice said the assessments were "failing" and "must be fixed to be delivered fairly".

    The organisation's chief executive, Gillian Guy, said: "The failings of the Work Capability Assessments are leaving sick and disabled people on a knife-edge.

    "Employment Support Allowance is now the biggest single issue that Citizens Advice clients need help with and more than 1.5 million people have come to us about problems with ESA since it was introduced."

    Timely and proper

    In total, more than three million people on ESA, including all those who previously claimed incapacity benefit, are being assessed to see how their illness or disability affects their ability to work.

    This process began under the last Labour government and has been accelerated by the coalition government.

    Mr Penning said a decision in March to end Atos's contract early was based on the fact he had lost faith in the firm.

    He said a new contractor - expected to be appointed in early 2015 - would not be chosen on cost alone but on its ability to carry out the assessments in a timely and proper fashion.

    This would cost the department more money, he said.

    Citizens Advice said safeguards should be put in place to deal with flaws in the assessment process, and the new contractor should be fined if its assessments were shown to be flawed.

    Ms Guy said: "Medical evidence should be made available free to claimants to support their application for support and the unacceptable backlog of applications must be dealt with.

    "Unless ministers make changes to how assessments are carried out then sick and disabled people face another three years of delays, anxiety and unfair treatment."

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27796739
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Re: WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Post by Kitkat Sun 06 Jul 2014, 10:02

    Glenda Jackson's hard-hitting message to Iain Duncan Smith.

    Delivered with eloquence, conviction and panache.  toast 

    I'm just dying to hear his response.



    IDS has “plunged thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens into the most abject penury”, said the Labour MP

    Yesterday’s House of Commons debate on the performance of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) under Iain Duncan Smith was ignited by an intervention by Glenda Jackson. The Labour MP for Hampstead claimed that IDS had “plunged thousands and thousands of our fellow citizens into the most abject penury”.

    “We are seeing people on ESA (employment support allowance) who are waiting months before their appeals will be heard, and during that period they are either told to apply to Jobseekers Allowance which they cannot do because they have been told they are unfit for work, and they are absolutely without any kind of financial support at all.”
    This entry was posted in Left Foot Forward on 1st July 2014.

    (Thanks to Bimbow for bringing it to my attention)
    Jamboree
    Jamboree

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Re: WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Post by Jamboree Mon 07 Jul 2014, 11:42

    Great speech from Ms Jackson.  I doubt if it's going to change anything though.  Notice how practically empty the House was - that's how much both sides actually care.

    Only in politics could IDS stay in a job.  Evil or Very Mad
    Kitkat
    Kitkat

    WHO GIVES ATOS ? Empty Re: WHO GIVES ATOS ?

    Post by Kitkat Mon 07 Jul 2014, 12:40

    Jamboree wrote:Only in politics could IDS stay in a job.  Evil or Very Mad

    Precisely!  Where else would his mode of operation be tolerated?  

    I am just waiting to see if Glenda Jackson's in yer face speech has had any kind of effect on pulling him down to earth - or whether it will provoke him to yet another one of his angry intolerant outbursts in response.

    IDS reacts “furiously” to anything that criticises him. :

    Check out IDS’s alarming list of 'angry related articles' …

    Iain Duncan Smith: even his anger is strangely bloodless

    Iain Duncan Smith Loses Temper With Owen Jones over Benefit Cap on Question time

    Another angry voice: Iain Duncan Smith’s callous contempt for the dead

    Sparring with Andrew Neil over wasted money on Universal Credit

    Furious Iain Duncan Smith threatened a Treasury official he would ‘bite your balls off’ in an extraordinary row over attempts to block his flagship welfare reforms.

    Iain Duncan Smith Launches Shocking Attack On Disabled Workers

    Yet another ill-tempered session of a key Commons committee with the minister responsible, Iain Duncan Smith.

    Mr Duncan Smith is furious with judges, blaming “judicial activism” for widening the definition of disability.

    Iain Duncan Smith bullied aide to tears over his expenses

    Iain Duncan Smith’s fury at the BBC

    Iain Duncan Smith says he is “absolutely furious” about London Mayor Boris Johnson’s approval…

    Iain Duncan Smith is furious and has complained bitterly because the BBC led its news bulletins ….

      Current date/time is Thu 28 Mar 2024, 22:24