Disagree With An Atos Decision? Then Starve Says DWP

The DWP have laid a vicious benefit trap which will mean severely sick and disabled people will have no legal entitlement to benefit at all if they choose to appeal an assessment by the notorious IT company Atos.

Atos carry out the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), the test for the sickness and disability benefit Employment Support Allowance.  This crude computer based test has been use to strip benefits from hundreds of thousands of people by declaring them ‘fit for work’.

From October this year claimants will not be able to appeal against a ‘fit for work’ decision until they have first requested a ‘mandatory reconsideration’ by a DWP decision maker.  Only if the claimant disagrees with this decision will they be able to take an appeal to a benefit tribunal.  This process is likely to take months.

A recent response to an FOI request (PDF) confirms that claimants will not be able to claim ESA whilst waiting for this process to be completed.  The DWP say that claimants will instead have the: “option of applying for alternative benefits, such as Jobseekers Allowance, however they must meet the conditions of entitlement”.

One of the key conditions of entitlement for Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) – the benefit for those unemployed not unwell – is that the claimants is able to work.

This will mean that those appealing an ESA decision and claiming Jobseekers Allowance will be placed in a potentially fraudulent position.  They will be appealing an ESA decision based on the fact they do not believe themselves able to work, and will be claiming JSA based on a claim that they are able to work.

Already many claimants have been left in a benefit limbo, after Atos have declare them ‘fit for work’ but Jobcentre staff do not believe this to be the case.  All those on JSA must be actively seeking work, ready to start work immediately and can be sent onto four weeks workfare at any point in their claim.  For many of those who have had ESA stopped, this is an impossibility.  JSA claimants can have benefits stopped completely, for up to three years in some cases, if they fail to complete jobseeking activity or workfare.

After these changes to appeals come into effect, any claimants who disagrees with a decision made by Atos is likely to be forced to go without any benefit at all whilst ‘reconsiderations’ of their benefits take place.  These people are not just already amongst the poorest in the country, but those with cancer, MS or other life threatening conditions.

This appears to be a vindictive attempt to bring down the number of successful appeals against sickness benefit decisions which have been a continual embarrassment to both the current and the previous Labour governments.

The new message from the DWP seems to be appeal if you want, but don’t expect to eat or heat your homes whilst you are waiting.  The end of result of these changes will no doubt be less appeals.  The price of that will be more people dying at the hands of this callous process, which increasingly seems precision-engineered to drive sick and disabled people into destitution.

UPDATE  13/6/13:  Clarification, the DWP say that claimants ‘may’ be paid at the assessment rate once the ‘mandatory reconsideration’ has taken place if they pursue an appeal.  There is no time limit on how long this process can take and this depends on whether they are able to provide medical evidence to the Department.

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Doctors Warn of The Hidden Costs of Welfare Reform

A letter written by Scottish Ministers to Iain Duncan Smith reveals one of the often overlooked consequences of the savage cuts to social security.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Health Secretary Alex Neil claim that the brutally flawed Work Capability Assessment used to determine eligibility for sickness and disability benefits is creating a “workload problem” for GPs.  This follows a recent letter signed by over 25 doctors and health professionals warning that the process is not only “cruel” but has also led to “significant adverse events such as self-harm and suicides which many of us have witnessed”.

It will not just be the NHS which begins to creak under the strain of welfare reforms, as millions of people are driven into destitution and a benefits regime which is increasingly designed to punish the poor.  As pointed out yesterday, when Universal Credit is fully introduced, parents of teenagers may find themselves expected to work, or attend workfare for many of the hours their children are not in school.  Leaving possibly hundreds of thousands of teenagers to wander the streets could create an explosion of anti-social behaviour, bullying and crime.  Benefit sanctions, as one leading homelessness charity has already warned, could lead to people being forced to beg and steal to survive.

The impact on policing, courts and prisons could be astronomical as parents are no longer permitted to care for their children and are sent on workfare instead.  The cost to the communities we live in, and to those children themselves, can not even begin to be measured.

Street homelessness is rising sharply, and the bedroom tax, benefit cap and housing benefit cuts can only add to that.  A think tank recently warned that one in four children will be living in poverty by 2020 as a direct result of changes to benefits.  Iain Duncan Smith’s crass attempts to redefine poverty as a personal failing rather than an economic disaster will not change the consequences of creating a society in which a quarter of young people are near destitute.

One of architects of welfare reform, Chris Grayling, once alleged that an area of Manchester was akin to the fictional representation of Baltimore in the television series The Wire.  Baltimore has a horrifically high murder rate and the show depicts a  flourishing drugs trade which all to often fills the vacuum in the absence of socialised protection for the poorest.  Grayling couldn’t have been more wrong about Manchester, yet this Government seem intent on making that absurd comparison come true.

The UK did not have an overly generous welfare system despite the claims made by all three political parties.  The main reason the social security system became so complicated is years of thinly designed cuts, bodges, anti-fraud initiatives and endless schemes aimed at trying to cure people of unemployment.  The reason the social security is so expensive is largely down to the astronomical costs involved simply in keeping a roof over your head in the UK.

The last Tory Government launched an all out assault on social housing – with the end result being soaring private sector rents and a rocketing housing benefit bill.  Iain Duncan Smith’s reckless experiment with welfare goes far beyond what even Thatcher would have dared suggest.

Those on benefits, whether in or out of work are now seeing their incomes decimated, and it’s only going to get worse.  No-one can truly know the social consequences of the changes that are taking place, which are all too often hidden under the cover of relentless propaganda claiming that the poorest people in the country are secretly living it up at the tax payers expense.

In truth this country already had poverty that should shame any nation as rich as the UK even before these changes to social security.  But even that may pail into insignificance compared to what is to come.  One thing is surely beyond doubt however.  Whatever is left of society after these reforms are fully implemented, it will be expensive for all of us.

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

5000 People With Cancer Declared Fit For Work Boasts Grant Shapps

Internet con-man Grant Shapps has been crawling all over the papers today as the Government used Easter Sunday to launch an all out attack on sick and disabled people.

Tory party chairman Shapps claims in the Telegraph today that he will do his job from the pub from now on and his bizarre diatribe suggests that he’s already well on the way to being pissed.  The notorious get rich quick scammer rants that sickness benefits are ‘evil’ whilst brandishing figures attempting to smear all those out of work due to illness or disability as scroungers.

Once again the Tories are suggesting that most claims for Employment Support Allowance are not genuine based simply on the fact that many people give up a claim for ESA before they are assessed.  This is the exact same trick that the DWP tried to pull last year which simply reveals that for many people sickness is temporary and when they get better they end their claims.

Digging into the numbers however reveals some tragic statistics.  Shapps’ pub bore rhetoric is based on figures which breakdown claims for ESA by condition, and provide details of the results of their assessments.

They make for depressing reading.  Almost 5000 people with cancer were found ‘fit for work’ between 2008 and 2011, including ten people with malignant brain tumours.  Over 1000 people diagnosed with schizophrenia were also deemed scroungers and had benefits stopped.

Two and a half thousand people with MS were found fit for workfare if not paid work and placed in the Work Related Activity Group.  A further 800 MS sufferers were thrown off sickness benefits altogether.

Confirming that many claims are temporary in nature, the figures include many people who had broken a limb or suffered some other short term injury or condition.  Unsurprisingly many of this group came off benefits before being assessed which can take place several months after making an initial claim.

There are many other reasons a claim might stop before an assessment takes place.  Claimants could marry someone and no longer be eligible, or in many cases reach retirement age.

In a predictable spittle-flecked outburst, the right wing press have crowed that almost 10,000 people whose primary conditions was associated with drug use ended their claim before assessment,  A similar number were found fit for work – as if employers are suddenly rushing to hire currently using heroin addicts.

Whilst some of this group may have stopped using drugs and therefore ended their claim, some may have found themselves in prison.  Others may have slipped out of the benefits system completely due to the chaotic nature of their condition.  Some will probably have died from an overdose before the assessment took place.

And it is this that reveals the truly nasty face of this Government.  Around 14,000 people with cancer ended their claim before they were assessed.  It should be hoped that this is because many of them went into long term remission.  The sad truth is that some of them will have died whilst awaiting a benefit decision.

It is these tragic deaths that the vile Tory party are only too happy to exploit in an attempt to prove that half of people on sickness benefits were faking their conditions.  They truly are beneath contempt.

The figures are available via google viewer for those without Excel or can be downloaded direct as an xls format.

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

How GPs Can End the Atos Death Toll

Shortly before Christmas the highly recommended Black Triangle Campaign published information on two little known regulations that could bring an end to the tragic number of deaths related to the Atos benefits assessment process.

Atos carry out the Government’s Work Capability Assessment, the crude computer based test which is used to strip benefits from sick and disabled people by declaring them ‘fit for work’.  Evidence from claimant’s GPs is often ignored at these assessments and over 40% of decisions made by Atos are over-turned on appeal.

The endless re-testing, combined with the stress of the appeal process, the demeaning nature of the assessments and the very real poverty many sick and disabled people find themselves after having benefits slashed, have led to an increasing number of tragic suicides.  Health professionals have warned of claimant’s health conditions being made significantly worse due to the process.

The regulations identified by Black Triangle show a way forward for all GPs who have concerns about how their patients are treated by Atos and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

Regulation 29 states that claimants should not be found ‘fit for work’ if:  “the claimant suffers from some specific disease or bodily or mental disablement and, by reasons of such disease or disablement, there would be a substantial risk to the mental or physical health of any person if the claimant were found not to have limited capability for work.”

Regulation 35 states that:  “the claimant suffers from some specific disease or bodily or mental disablement; (b) and by reasons of such disease or disablement, there would be a substantial risk to the mental or physical health of any person if the claimant were found not to have limited capability for work-related activity.”

(Claimants and GPs should read the full guidance on the Black Triangle website which also contains important legal information)

Already these regulations have been successfully used in the appeals process and benefits have been re-instated.

Few claimants and even fewer GPs are aware of these regulations.  It is vital that this information is circulated as widely as possible.  GPs have a medical and moral responsibility to intervene if they believe their patients health may be made worse by being judged fit for work.  These two regulations mean that GPs can, and must intervene in the process if they truly support the long established medical tradition of ‘first do no harm’.

Black Triangle have also published draft letters which claimants can use to request support from their GP using these regulations: http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/11/21/important-black-triangle-dpac-regs-2935-campaign-failed-your-dwpatos-wca-intend-to-appeal-download-these-documents-for-your-gp/

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Co-op Campaign: Stop the Atos Contract!

Action is being called for around the UK as fake hippy bankers, the Co-operative Bank, consider whether to continue using the service of disability deniers Atos to provide Occupational Health services the company.

Atos carry out the notorious Work Capability Assessment, the crude computer based test which is used to strip benefits from sick disabled people by finding them ‘fit for work’.

Last year it emerged that the Co-op currently use Atos to provide Occupational Health to their staff. This led to furious protests both on and offline with the Co-op attempting to weasel their way out of trouble by claiming they couldn’t do anything about it for contractual reasons.  Now the contract is up for tender and astonishingly the Co-op have refused to rule out using the services of Atos again.

Many workers of other companies have found themselves laid off for health reasons after recommendations made by Atos, only to be found fit for work as part of their benefits assessment.  The company have previously boasted on their website that they have “a team of Organisation and HR professionals who undertake the analysis, design and execution of headcount reduction.”

Atos are equal opportunities wankers, they treat workers every bit as badly as they treat people who cannot work due to sickness or disability.

Two pickets of the Co-op have already been called in Glasgow on the 17th and 19th of January calling on the company not to renew their contract with Atos: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2013/01/505265.html

Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/events/488541864531259/

Pickets are currently being planned elsewhere in the UK.

A Communications Blockade has also been called for the 17th January, details at: http://www.dpac.uk.net/2013/01/co-op-campaign-stop-the-atos-contract/

Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/events/357131177718217/

You can contact the Co-op on twitter @TheCooperative or on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/TheCooperative

Action called by the Crutch Collective, Clydeside Industrial Workers Of The World and Glasgow Solidarity Federation

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

Atos in the Dock

From Public Interest lawyers via Disabled people Against Cuts

A disabled man who was wrongly found fit for work under the government’s disability benefit assessment scheme is launching legal action to try and stop more disabled people being wrongly kicked off the social safety net.

Patrick Lynch, a former social care worker who was forced to quit work because of his impairments, is seeking a judicial review of the controversial disability benefit assessment scheme run by Atos.

The Work Capability Assessment (WCA), which determines eligibility for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for people whose health or impairment stops them from working, is at present hugely unreliable, with many people wrongly found fit for work despite severely debilitating and in some cases life-threatening conditions.

The legal action is seeking a ruling that would require Atos, the private firm that runs the WCA process on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), to grant all ESA claimants the unequivocal right to have their assessment recorded and to receive their WCA report before a decision on their eligibility is made – both key safeguards against people’s health conditions being misreported or ignored altogether.

DWP research and a survey conducted by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) both show widespread demand from claimants to have their WCA assessments recorded, to ensure their medical conditions are not misrepresented in order to wrongly strip them of benefits. But while the DWP granted the right to request a recording earlier this year, there are considerable bureaucratic obstacles to both securing a recording and then using it in an appeal, with Atos recently introducing a restrictive ‘consent form’ for those wanting a recording of their assessment.

The case is being brought by Public Interest Lawyers, and draws on research by Disabled People Against Cuts and the TUC-backed campaign group False Economy.

Mr Lynch wants the DWP and Atos to adopt the following safeguards:

a)    Universal recording to ensure that all claimants undergoing a WCA or an assessment under the new PIP benefit system will have the right to have their assessment recorded;

b)    Claimants will get a copy of the WCA report before a decision is made on their eligibility for ESA, and will have the chance to raise any concerns with the DWP decision maker;

c)    The DWP/Atos will be responsible for obtaining medical evidence from the medical professional named by the claimant;

d)    The DWP ensures that all assessment centres are fully accessible.

Taken together, these measures would address some of the inaccuracy inherent in the disability benefits system. Disability campaigners have raised repeated concerns over how the WCA process causes huge stress for ESA recipients, with many disabled people’s lives ruined after wrongly having their benefits removed.

Mr Lynch, now a campaigner with DPAC, was found fit for work following a flawed WCA report in 2010, before the DWP reconsidered and reversed the decision. His most recent WCA this year upheld his benefit entitlement, but even then Atos’ report of his assessment contained inaccuracies.

In bringing the action Mr Lynch notes

“Disabled people and the poor in this Country have always struggled to get what they are duly entitled to. The fight must go on to address the injustice caused by this out of touch Government.”

A DPAC spokesperson said:

“The evidence is clear – more than 98 percent of those responding to our survey said they wanted their assessment recorded and that they believed it would provide a better account. However, many reported a whole host of barriers in getting a recording in place.”

Blogging will be lighter than usual probably until the New Year.

Spartacus Strikes Back – The Truth About Atos and the WCA

A report has been released today by disabled campaigners highlighting the often harrowing experiences that sick and disabled people face due to the infamous Work Capability Assessment (WCA).

The WCA is a short computer based health and disability test, carried out by French IT company Atos.  This assessment is used to judge eligibility for sickness and disability benefits and has led to thousands of people, often with serious health conditions or disabilities, being declared ‘fit for work’.

Many more people have been placed in the Work Related Activity Group, which means claimants are expected to take part in jobseeking activity including the Government’s Work Programme.  This means attending training and job search sessions under threat of punishing benefit sanctions.  There have even been suggestions raised by DWP officials that this group should be forced to attend workfare.  Astonishingly it is large disability charities, such as Scope (@scope), Mencap (@mencap_charity) and MIND (@MindCharity) who refer disabled people to the DWP to face benefit sanctions if they are judged to have not complied with the demands of the Work Programme.

Today’s report is the result of extensive research carried out by We Are Spartacus, a network of disabled campaigners, activists, researchers and bloggers and features extensive testimony from those who have attended the WCA themselves as well as from advice workers who have supported people through the process.

This important document deserves to be widely read.  Please tweet, blog and share as much as possible: http://wearespartacus.org.uk/wca-peoples-review/

“My client has had brain damage since a massive haemorrhage/coma at the age of 22. This has left him with a short term memory of 20 minutes. He doesn’t remember me, or my voice, and keeps extensive diaries of daily events so he can record what he has to do. He has been found capable of work 3 times, and on one occasion he lost his home, because he couldn’t remember what he had to do to appeal. (IS stopped, so I presume HB stopped, although we will never know as he doesn’t remember).”

“I have a brain tumour and was left disabled because I had the left side of my cerabellum amputated, because of this my balance and co’ordination to my left side is shot coupled with the fact that all the cancer could not be removed I am also terminally ill, I DID NOT MAKE IT INTO THE SUPPORT GROUP. I was told I should be working in a set period of time, funny as it was the same as my lifespan, I contacted my MP who was luckily an x GP and gave him permission to look at my medical notes he was disgusted and got my decision reversed I am now in the support group. The letter from the DWP stated that I was not terminally ill for the purposes of benefit entitlement.”

“I have just got back from my esa medical. I was made to do things that caused me severe pain, despite telling the lady that i would be if great pain if i attempted to do this she told me i had to do it otherwise she would have to say that i refused and that the decison makers class refusing to take part in the activity as “able to work” she actualy said and i quote ” its like the drink driving test if you dont do the test your automacitly classed as failing it.”

“Karen Sherlock, 44, was put in the Work Related Activity Group in 2010. Where she was required to attend interviews, work-related activity etc.

She suffered from Diabetic Autonomic Neuropathy (gastric causing unpredictable and severe diarrhoea), Gastropaerisis (causing unpredictable and severe bouts of vomiting), Diabetic Retinopathy, partially sighted (loss of peripheral vision in both eyes and some central vision in left eye), Heart condition, Chronic Kidney Disease, Vitamin B12 Deficiency, Anaemia, Hypertension, High Cholesterol, Hypothyroidism, Asthma and Chronic tiredness due to multiple illnesses.

Her husband Nigel said it was a disgrace she was refused benefits and said her battle finally took its toll on her health.

Last year she lost a long process of appeal against the decision but continued her campaign. In April 2012, as a result of the time-limiting of ESA to one year, her £96-a-week benefits were stopped, plunging her into despair as her health deteriorated.

She won her appeal a few weeks ago and she was finally put in the Support Group.

She died eight days later on 8 June.”

These same types of assessments, again carried out by Atos, are shortly to be extended to almost three million people currently receiving Disability Living Allowance.

Support the Cardiff Vigil Outside Atos ‘Healthcare’

A man stripped of benefits after falling victim to the notorious Work Capability Assessment has announced he will end his hunger strike outside the Cardiff offices of Atos Healthcare however a week long vigil will continue.

UPDATE: 7/11/12 – Latest from Christos: I am still on hunger strike. Whether it is right or not for me to stage this type of protest is not the right question to be asking at this moment in time. The right question to ask is why am I on hunger strike. See the comments below and more at: http://christosuk77.tumblr.com/post/35179300237/french-it-company-faces-hunger-strike

Christos Palmer is targeting the company due to their involvement in assessments which are used to declare even those with serious and terminal conditions ‘fit for work’. Christos, who has both mental and physical health problems, including depression, self-harm and mobility issues, has been fasting since the beginning of the weekend. To the great relief of friends and supporters, who feared for his health, he has today announced that he will shortly end the hunger strike.

A spokesperson for Disabled People Against Cuts in Cardiff has said:

”While we support the protest aims we are extremely concerned about Christos’s physical and mental wellbeing. He often suffers from extreme fatigue and is housebound on some days. That somebody so unwell has been driven to this shows the desperation that the sick and disabled are being driven to by this government. We are urging him to end his hunger strike”

Whilst Christos’ tactics have created some controversy he appears in good spirits and satisfied that he has made his point. Having been pushed into such drastic action by the policies of this Government and their corporate lackies Atos, he deserves support – as does the Cardiff vigil which will take place everyday this week until 5pm on November 9th.

All are welcome to join the vigil, even if only for a short while, which is taking place at St Agnes Road, Gabalfa, Cardiff from around 9am until 4pm daily. For more information and to send a message of support visit the facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/events/430345053681756/

Atos Victims To Blame For Appeals Shambles Claims Mark Hoban

For over a month now there’s been barely a peep from the newly appointed Employment Minister Mark Hoban.  Unlike his bungling predecessor Chris Grayling, he was too lazy too give a speech at the Tory Party Conference and doesn’t appear to have done anything at all during his first month in the job.

Radio 4 however have finally managed to drag the lazy bastard out of his bed and it’s clear he would have been better staying where he was.  In a debate about the growing scandal of successful appeals brought against benefit slashing decisions made by Atos ‘Healthcare’ he attempted to blame sick and disabled people for the shambles.

Atos carry out the Work Capability Assessment which has been used to strip benefits from hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled benefit claimants.  40% of appeals against the company’s decisions are upheld at tribunals, and it is this shocking statistic that Hoban attempts to blame on sick and disabled people themselves.  Speaking this afternoon Hoban said:

“What’s happening too often is people are suggesting to claimants ‘oh, just leave the medical evidence until the appeal’ – there’s a shared responsibility here.”

This shocking statement does not bode well for the future of those with cancer, Parkinson’s Disease, MS or any number of other serious and life threatening conditions about to be forced into the humiliating Atos assessment regime.  The reality is that many claimants are terrified by the assessment process with an increasing number of people tragically taking their own lives.

The notion that people would gamble on losing vital benefits because they couldn’t be bothered to provide the necessary evidence of their condition is an astonishing new low for the DWP.  If this is the best we can expect from the skiving Employment Minister then he should fuck off back to sleep.

Sack the Co-op Until They Ditch Atos

The Co-operative Bank’s claim to be an ‘ethical investment’ company – as if such a thing exists – are looking increasingly dubious after it has emerged that in 2009 they signed a four year contract with disability denying poverty pimps Atos Healthcare.

The company claim to have been unaware of the activities of Atos who carry out the government’s notorious Work Capability Assessment aimed at stripping benefits from sick and disabled people.  An increasing number of people have ended their lives after stress and poverty inflicted by the Atos testing regime whilst a recent investigation found that 32 people a week die after being found ‘fit for work’ by the company.

The Co-op claim they have ‘contractual  obligations’  to Atos but have announced they will take customer’s views into account when deciding whether to renew the contract.  You can tell them how you feel at:  http://www.facebook.com/TheCooperative