Atos scandal: Benefits bosses admit over half of people ruled fit to work ended up destitute

 ATOS Paid Hundreds of Millions in return for the Death of Claimants & Untold Misery

It speaks volumes when Starbucks pays no tax for 3 years and less than 1% on $3 Billion of trade over a decade but the sick and disabled are hounded by the Tories and their Lib Dem allies for every pound they receive.

ATOS is the company that is paid hundreds of millions of pounds in order to fiddle the tests and drive people literally to their deaths.

Tony Greenstein

Ian Duncan Smith - right-wing scumbag responsible for the hounding of the sick - Secretary of State

Joyce has not worked since the stress of her job at Atos

Margaret Monaghan

Scottish Daily Record 26 Sep 2012 07:38

PUBLIC fury is growing towards the French IT firm for their role in helping the Con-Dem government slash benefits.

Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

MORE than HALF of people stripped of disability benefits after being ruled “fit for work” by Atos were left unemployed and without income, according to a Government study.

The Department for Work and Pensions, who hired the French IT firm to help them slash the benefits bill, have admitted finding out in a survey that 55 per cent of people who lost benefits in the crackdown had failed to find work.

Only 15 per cent were in jobs, with 30 per cent on other benefits.

The DWP claimed people left high and dry were given “tailored support” to find jobs.

But the extent of the hardship suffered by the Atos victims in the study will only add to the growing public fury about the firm and their methods.

Atos have assessed patients with terminal illnesses as “fit for work”. And thousands of victims of genuine, chronic conditions have complained of being humiliated by the company’s tests.

So far, Citizens Advice Scotland have received a shocking 24,000 complaints about Atos, who rake in £110million a year from the taxpayer for their controversial work.

The extent of unemployment among people denied benefits after Atos assessments was revealed by the DWP after a Freedom of Information request.

Investigators from the department spoke to 1100 claimants deemed fit for work and found that 55 per cent had no jobs or benefits.

Thirty per cent were getting jobseekers’ allowance or other benefits and just 15 per cent were in employment.

A later, follow-up survey of 590 of the claimants revealed that 43 per cent were still jobless and without income. Twenty-eight per cent were receiving benefits and 29 per cent were in work.

The snapshot surveys were taken between April and June 2009 and included in a report compiled for the DWP in 2011.

The figures were released to a member of the public under Freedom of Information law on September 10 this year.

The Record has been telling the stories of Scots who have fallen foul of Atos – and of former staff who have seen from the inside how the company operate.

Joyce has not worked since the stress of her job at Atos Joyce has not worked since the stress of her job at Atos

Former Atos nurse Joyce Drummond told us how bosses forced her to “trick” disabled people out of their benefits.

Joyce’s medical training meant she knew claimants were unfit to work, but she was told to mark people as fit if they could write – or if they showed up for their interviews properly dressed.

Labour MP Michael Meacher has launched a campaign against Atos after one of his constituents who had been ruled fit for work died of a seizure.

He said lifelong epilepsy sufferer Colin Traynor’s health deteriorated under the stress of a £70-a-week cut to his benefit.

Meacher added: “Colin worried he would lose his home, not be able to pay his bills or even afford food. His health deteriorated, his seizures increased due to stress, and he lost a lot of weight.

“On April 3 this year he had a massive seizure that killed him.

“Colin is just one of many victims of this unfair system.

“Even though they deny it, I believe Atos have been given a target to get two-thirds of people off incapacity benefit.

“There are thousands of people being told wrongly that they are able to work. The Government have admitted that 11,000 people forced on to work-related activity after assessments have died before getting work.

“I am trying to gather all the cases I can, because this is a massive injustice. I am prepared to campaign for months or years until this is addressed properly.”
Atos have defended their role in the benefit crackdown. A spokeswoman said: “Our doctors, nurses and physiotherapists use their clinical knowledge and apply the Government’s policy and criteria to each assessment.

“We try to make the part of the process we are responsible for as comfortable as possible.”

Sometimes I wish my cancer had killed me

Margaret's story           

Margaret Monaghan

AFTER being left on the breadline by Atos, cancer survivor Margaret Monaghan often wishes her treatment had failed.

The mum-of-two was diagnosed with breast cancer eight years ago and now suffers terrible pain in her limbs as well as depression.

But after FOUR Atos assessments, she is still being refused disability living allowance, and is struggling to raise her young family on Job Seekers Allowance.

Margaret, 45, of Stevenston, Ayrshire, said: “I just feel completely ignored and I get really down about it.

“I’d love to work but I can’t get a job. My memory has been destroyed by my
illness and I have terrible pains all over my body.

“I had a mastectomy, the doctor says my nerves have been damaged by the chemotherapy and I have suffered terrible bouts of depression.

“I’ve been to four Atos assessments but they always find I’m fit for work, despite the fact no employer would give me a job in a million years.

“At my lowest points I truly wish that the cancer
treatment hadn’t worked, because I feel the life I have been left with just isn’t worth living.

“I have an 11-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son and it breaks my heart because I can’t give them the things I would like to because I have so little money.

“It is clear to everyone that Atos have been brought in to get people off benefits to save money.

“They don’t care what your condition is. Something has to be done about it, not just for me, but for thousands of people out there in the same position.”

Denied disability benefits after a lifetime of hard work

Stress: James worries how he will pay bills

David Groves - Killed by ATOS

 Hard-working former delivery worker James is denied a lifeline by government cuts
The disability benefit fiasco continues, with the seriously ill and disabled wrongly denied essential help.

Yes, the system needs to change. Those milking it and living off handouts because they can’t be bothered to do a day’s work should be stopped.

But the reality is that the ­assessment brought in by the Government to achieve this simply isn’t working.

Instead, hard-working people who have paid their way, many grafting for decades and paying National Insurance in the belief this would protect them if they became too ill to work, are losing the help they desperately need at the crucial time when they are struggling with serious ill health.

Former delivery worker James Grindle is one. He is in pain, confused and worried about how he and wife Susan will keep up with their bills as his ­Employment Support Allowance has been stopped. James has been suffering stomach and bladder pains for more than a year and has had an operation on his prostate.

He was deemed fit for work after an Atos assessment regarding his eligibility for ESA, despite losing his job after being deemed unfit to work after an Atos medical assessment for his previous employer.

James, 63, from Rotherham, says: “The first assessment lost me my job after saying I was unfit for work. Yet a few months later I was suddenly fit for work. How can that be?

“I am recovering from an operation so couldn’t go out to work at the moment, even if I could find someone who will take me on in my ­condition. I have done 48 years of hard graft and paid my way.

“I stupidly believed that would entitle me to a bit of help if I ever needed it. But now Susan and I are struggling on just her bit of money from the 25 hours a week she does. We are really worried how we will keep on top of things and manage to juggle our finances. The stress and worry is dreadful. It really isn’t doing anything to help me get stronger, which is what will be needed if the Government want me back into work.”James is appealing against the decision with the help of his local Citizens Advice Bureau.

Annette Cassam, of Rotherham and District Citizens Advice, says: “This case raises many questions about how Atos assesses people for fitness for work.

“We accept the assessments were completed for different reasons but can’t understand how the same company can do two assessments on the same person and produce such contradictory results. Mr Grindle is understandably confused about his position. This needs to be looked into.”
James is just one of tens of thousands of people being refused benefits after they have gone through a Work Capability ­Assessment to find out if they are fit for work.

The assessment is part of the Government’s sweeping changes to the benefits system that are meant to make things simpler and fairer, to ensure that only those who are genuinely entitled get the help they need.

But huge numbers of the most vulnerable – those seriously ill and disabled – are being hit hard and left penniless.

Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy said: “Sadly James is not an isolated case.

“We are seeing a lot of very sick and seriously disabled people being wrongly denied ESA and being put through ­enormous additional stress and hardship at a time when they most need support.

“In most cases they have worked and paid into the system all their lives – sometimes over three or four decades – believing this will protect them if they become too ill to work. They are feeling very betrayed and frightened for the future.”
CAB says it has serious concerns about the test used to decide if people are fit for work and the way it’s carried out. In too many cases medicals are rushed, people aren’t listened to, ­information is recorded inaccurately or ignored and medical evidence from the doctors treating people isn’t taken into account.

Gillian adds: “We wouldn’t allow a private contractor to let us down on the Olympics. We can’t allow one to let down disabled people.

“Mistakes by Atos have a human cost and a cost to the taxpayer. Getting medical assessments right first time is absolutely essential to making sure seriously ill and disabled people get the support they are entitled to and cutting the number of unnecessary appeals. Private companies on ­government contracts must be ­accountable to the public. We want to see Atos face a fine for every inaccurate report they produce.”

Emotional

Atos were awarded the contract to carry out assessments from the ­Department for Work and Pensions in 1998 and have just had it renewed through to 2015.

They say they cannot comment on individual cases but the Work Capability Assessment is not to diagnose or treat a medical condition but instead to look at someone’s ability to work. A spokesman said: “We know applying for benefits can be an emotional and difficult time, which is why we do all we can to make the part of the process we’re responsible for as straightforward and comfortable as possible.

“We carry out all assessments within the criteria and policy guidelines set by the Government and do not make any decisions on benefit entitlement.

“The assessment by us forms an important but single part of information used by the department to make its decision on benefit entitlement.”

Fastest-growing problem

CAB advisers helped with more than 97,000 ESA problems between January and March this year – up 71% compared with the same quarter last year, making ESA the fastest-growing advice issue seen in bureaux.

In the same period, CAB recorded an 82% increase in advice about appeals against ESA decisions. Latest official Department of Work and Pensions figures say 38% of appeals against ESA decisions are successful.

CAB advisers estimate the success rate at appeal, where someone receives specialist CAB advice and is ­represented, is 80%.