New Disability Tests Are Even Worse Than First Feared, Join The Fightback On July 13th

Disabled people have called a day of action against notoriously crap Capita on July 13th

Vital benefits – designed to meet the additional costs of living with a disability – have been stripped away completely from over 120,00 people DWP statistics revealed this week.

Over a quarter of those previously claiming Disability Living Allowance (DLA) have lost their benefits after being re-assessed by a private company as no longer having sufficient care or mobility needs to qualify for help.  Savage new benefit eligibility tests have been introduced as part of the switch to Personal Independence Payments (PIP), which is gradually replacing DLA.  So far 27% of those facing this re-assessment have lost their benefit with hundreds of thousands of people still to be tested.  Originally the government claimed 20% of people would lose their benefits due to the change-over.  Chillingly it now appears it could be much worse.  For newly disabled people the situation is even more dire, with only 48% of new claims for PIP being successful.

The shocking statistics come after disabled people announced a day of action against Capita, one of the companies who administer the tests – the other being the despised Atos.  Disabled People Againsts Cuts (DPAC),  Mental Health Resistance Network (MHRN) and Winvisible have joined forces to call for demonstrations in towns and cities across the UK on July 13th aimed at bringing these vile assessments to an end.

In London demonstrators will gather outside Capita’s offices at 71 Victoria Street, SW1 from 13.15.  An online protest will also be held on the day.  Please join and share the facebook page for the latest details of all events.  As the protesters say:

“ATOS and Capita are making a killing from conducting sham PIP assessments which are seeing thousands of legitimate claimants having their benefits reduced, their incomes slashed and their motorbility cars removed.”

It is time to up the struggle and to demand that the corporate assessors #DoNoHarm”

The latest PIP statistics can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-april-2016

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The Nastiest Shambles Yet, Quarter Of A Million People Awaiting New Disability Benefit Decision

Personal Independence Payments (PIP) have lurched even further into chaos with over quarter of a million people waiting months on end for a decision on the new benefit.

PIP is Iain Duncan Smith’s replacement for Disability Living Allowance, the benefit paid to many disabled people to meet costs associated with mobility or care.  The new system launched for new claims in April last year and means sick and disabled people will be forced to attend demeaning and stressful assessments carried out by the notorious Atos and bungling Capita.  The purpose of these assessments is to strip benefits from a fifth of disabled people.

335,000 people have claimed the new benefit since it began last year, but appallingly only just over 80,000  have had a decision made on their claim.  Some people have been waiting for months.  In August last year 95,500 people had claimed Personal Independence Payments meaning that the wait for some has been around eight months and counting.

For people on low incomes this wait will be devastating.  Many PIP claimants will be newly disabled, or will have faced an existing health condition becoming significantly worse.  Some will simply not have the money to pay for care or mobility until the DWP can get their act together.  This delay will mean people trapped in their homes, or going without vital care at a time in their lives when they’ve really got better fucking things to be dealing with.

Atos recently pulled out of similar assessments for out of work sickness and disability assessments and know only too well that most medical professionals are far to ethical to involve themselves in grubby benefit tests that harm people’s health.  It is possible that much of the shambles is down to a failure to recruit enough healthcare professionals who have no desire to be part of Iain Duncan Smith’s horrifying attempt at destroying disabled people’s lives.

Whatever the cause the disaster that PIP has become shows just how much the safety net of the welfare state is being swept away by a combination of callousness and incompetence.  If you become sick or disabled, and need the help you’ve already paid for to live an independent life, then expect to strung along for months and treated like dirt by the DWP.

To download the latest statistics go to: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-official-statistics-june-2014

Thanks to Richard Cole for the pic.

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Huge Victory For Sick And Disabled Claimants As Atos Chased Out Of Vicious Benefit Assessments

French IT firm Atos saying they are planning to pull out of Work Capability Assessments, the shambolic and cruel tests designed to strip away benefits from sick and disabled people, is the most humiliating blow yet for Iain Duncan Smith’s bodged attempt at reforming social security.

In a stunning victory for campaigners, Atos say the Work Capability Assessment isn’t working, for them, claimants themselves and even the hapless DWP.  The attempt at early withdrawal from the contract comes just days after protests were held outside Atos assessment centres in towns and cities across the UK.

The astounding announcement also sheds new light on The Guardian story which revealed that the DWP were secretly plotting to get rid of Atos and bring in new contractors to run the tests.  There is truly no honour amongst these thieves as Atos and the DWP bicker in public about who dumped who first.  Meanwhile poverty pimps like Capita and G4S will be salivating at the prospect of Iain Duncan Smith stuffing their mouths with gold to try and keep his bungled welfare reforms alive.

Atos has blamed abuse and death threats made towards their so-called ‘healthcare’ professionals as one reason they want to withdraw from the contract early.  Yet Atos must have known that taking on a contract designed to impoverish sick and disabled claimants would lead to them becoming despised.  It is no surprise that a very small number of people facing the WCA displayed what social workers call ‘challenging behaviour’.  Any social care professional or even copper could have warned them  about this.  If Atos were unable to put in policies and procedures that kept their staff safe then they only have themselves to blame.

When people have been driven to suicide by the vile activities of this company, their whining about few scabby doctors being slagged off on twitter rings a little fucking hollow.  The truth is that Atos have seen their brand made toxic all over the world by their involvement in these tests – which only represent a very small part of their business.  This is almost certainly the real reason they have decided to embarrass the DWP by very publicly trying to abandon this contract.

This announcement does not represent the end of the WCA, but it could be the beginning of the end.  Anything that at least slows the bastards down should be welcomed.  This victory should be used as a springboard to escalate the campaign against whichever odious profiteers decide to take over the hated WCA.

If Atos think they are off the hook however they are sorely fucking mistaken.   There has been no announcement from the company about their involvement (along with Capita) in assessments for Personal Independence Payments – the replacement for Disability Living Allowance designed to cut benefits from 20% of disabled people.  These tests have barely begun and already are a shambles with claims taking months on end to administer.  It will be those in and out of work alike who face these assessments which are little different from the WCA that Atos have just condemned.  If the company think they’ve had problems with out of work sick and disabled people just wait and see what happens when they are assessing lawyers, other doctors, and even MPs.

Atos are also expected to be involved in George Osborne’s mass workfare scheme which begins in April.  Claimants already found ‘fit for work’ by Atos could be abused by company again and forced to undertake 780 hours of unpaid ‘community work’ just for the crime of being unemployed.

Atos may be on the run, but they should be ruthlessly chased down until they pull out of all government contracts designed to bully, impoverish and harass sick, disabled or unemployed people.  Until that day comes, Atos should remain firmly in the firing line.

DPAC, Black Triangle & WOW Petition: Joint Statement on the Bizarre ATOS Exit Strategy http://dpac.uk.net/2014/02/dpac-black-triangle-wow-petition-joint-statement-on-the-bizarre-atos-exit-strategy/#sthash.Yq28TezO.dpufFollow me on twitter @johnnyvoid

Take Online Action Against The CRAPITA Conference: Cashing in on Poverty

From Boycott Workfare

Take action on Monday 27th January while poverty profiteers gather at Capita’s ‘Welfare reform’ conference

Please share, tweet, spread the word!

While millions of people struggle to eat or heat their homes, and thousands of families face eviction, foodbanks and homelessness due to sanctions, bedroom tax and loss of disability benefits, Capita cashes in with conferences for Lord Freud (Minister for Dismantling Welfare) and his workfare collaborators.

You could pay £350 – £575 (plus VAT) to join all those snouts in the workfare trough at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel. Or you can let them know what you think via twitter, email, phone – follow the links below.

We’ll post the conference hash tag as soon as we have it so you can join in the discussions on the day (or you can check out @capitaconf and their inspiring #capitaconf hashtag to see for yourself). You could also use the DWP’s #job2014 hashtag. The DWP are making a big effort to improve their social media presence – the least we can do is increase their footfall @DWPgovuk

The aim of the conference is to get ‘partners’ who make money from it ready for the next stage of ‘benefit reform’, with a special focus on ‘shifting the culture’. Let’s shift it in another direction!

In addition to the DWP’s own Lord Freud, (one of the chief architects in paying the private sector to dismantle welfare rights aka the great welfare rip off) the organisations below are supporting the event.

Private and voluntary sector organisations making big money from the outsourcing of welfare – let them know (politely) what you think…

Papworth Trust
Papworth Trust are involved in delivering the Work Programme and Mandatory Work Activity. See their PR justifying workfare here.

Text 07860 021210 and Papworth will contact you.
Email: info@papworth.org.uk
Twitter: @Papworth_Trust

David Martin, Director of Strategy and Marketing will be speaking on the needs of job seekers with disabilities.  He’ll be covering self esteem and self awareness.  We’d like to know if he has anything to say about suicide, despair and plunging people with disabilities into poverty.
D: 01480 357208
M: 07772 197770
E: david.martin@papworth.org.uk

Aspire Housing

Email: enquiries@aspirehousing.co.uk

Sinead Butters CEO  of Aspire will be speaking on ‘achieving social and financial return on investment’ – and ‘delivering enhanced employment and skills interventions to tenants’. Let her know what you think about making money out of workfare and using housing as a route to coerce people into ‘skills interventions’.

Twitter: @SineadBAspire

A2Dominion

A2Dominion – another housing association collaborating with the DWP’s benefits cuts agenda.  As part of the ‘digital deal pilot’, A2Dominion are ‘getting social tenants on line as part of preparation for universal credit’.

Fiona Cornell, Deputy Executive Director, will be talking about the digital deal pilot and how it helps the DWP to spy on and harass claimants
Twitter: @A2Dominion

Tomorrow’s People  ‘making life (low pay/no pay) work’

TP are major players in the forcing young people to work for nothing industry.

Steve Swan, Tomorrow’s People Director of Welfare to Work will be holding forth on how to push those who are most vulnerable and disadvantaged into the new growth industry of low pay, no pay jobs

You can let them know what you think about their schemes for young people:
Twitter: @TPcharity

ATOS Healthcare

Gary Gear from ATOS will be speaking alongside Stephen Duckworth from Capita.

This is the ‘healthcare’ arm of the French IT firm ATOS, well known for making millions out of DWP contracts for ‘work capability assessments’ designed to strip people of out of work sickness and disability benefits.  They are also well known for earning hundreds of millions from WCA and paying no Corporation Tax in the UK.

Local Councils

Lewisham, Wigan and Southwark councils are also taking part.  If you live in these boroughs, why not let them know what you think:  Gerri Scott (Southwark Strategic Director of Housing), Peter Gadson (Lewisham Head of Customer Insight), Alison McKenzie-Folan (Wigan Director of Customer Transformation) and Graham Cadle (Croydon Director of Customer Services).

Lewisham Council
Twitter: @LewishamCouncil

Wigan Council
Twitter: @WiganCouncil

Southwark Council
Twitter: @lb_southwark

Croydon Council
Twitter: @yourcroydon

Citizens Advice Bureaux
Twitter: @CitizensAdvice

We’re sorry to see CAB taking part.  CAB workers across the country have seen first hand the impact of sanctions, forced unpaid labour, bedroom tax and other benefit cuts.  The evidence is set out in a report from Manchester CAB. So why is Katie Shaw, Head of CAB Welfare Policy chairing this event? Workfare and other attacks on social security and workers’ rights would collapse without the collusion of the voluntary sector.

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Atos Paid No Tax In 2012 Despite Boss Earning £2.3 Million

French IT firm Atos, the company paid hundreds of millions to carry out the brutal Work Capability Assessment, paid no Corporation Tax in the UK last year the Daily Telegraph has revealed.

The company, who also have a string of other public sector contracts and have recently been invited to bid to part-run George Osborne’s mass workfare scheme, claim to have made no profit in the UK in 2012.  Yet boss of the company, Thierry Breton, was recently discovered to have been awarded a £280,000 pay rise during the same period – meaning his annual salary package is now worth an astonishing £2,329,250.

Atos are not the only company with their snouts in the public sector trough who have given nothing back.  The notorious and allegedly fraud ridden G4S also paid no Corporation Tax in the last year.  According to The Telegraph, the company appear to justify this by saying they paid around £400million in PAYE-related taxes.  This is a common excuse from the bosses of tax dodging multi-nationals and it is contemptible, as if it is them, and not their employees, who are paying this tax.

The figures came to light after a National Audit Office (NAO) report which revealed that the four biggest public sector contractors – Atos, G4S, Serco and Capita – received around £6.6 billion from public sector contracts in 2012.  To place this figure in context, that is around one and a half times the annual bill for the main unemployment benefit Jobseekers Allowance.  Almost half a billion of that came from contracts with the DWP which merely exist to bully and harass those out of work and little else.  All these contracts have been a disaster, from the bungled Work Capability Assessment which has seen hundreds of thousands of wrong decisions over-turned on appeal, to the equally bodged Work Programme which is performing worse at getting people into work than doing nothing at all.

Osborne’s latest workfare plans alone are expected to cost another third of a billion pounds.  Still these companies are being handed huge sums of tax payer’s money.  Much of that will end up in the pockets of bosses like Thierry Breton.  Some will be squandered on incompetence such as the Olympic Security farce.  If the investigations into Serco and G4S’ probation contracts are anything to go by then some of it will be stolen outright.   And now it seems almost nothing will come back to the tax payer as they whinge that they haven’t made enough money and so can’t afford to pay tax.

Claimants who take a few quid off the state to stay alive due to sickness, parenthood, unemployment or disability are immediately judged to be benefit scroungers.  Steal a couple of billion and the cunts will probably give you a knighthood.

The NAO Report can be read at: http://www.nao.org.uk/report/memorandum-role-major-contractors-delivery-public-services/

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Don’t Blame Us For Disability Benefit Cuts Say Capita, We’re Just In It For The Money

“The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.”  Nuremberg Principle IV

Nothing sums up the current profit obsessed capitalist culture more than the claim that as long as you are making money then you have no moral responsibility for your actions whatsoever.

This is exactly the position Stephen Duckworth from Capita attempted in The Guardian yesterday to justify their involvement in the upcoming Personal Independence Assessments (PIP) which will see a fifth of disabled people stripped of life-saving benefits.

“Don’t blame us for policy” say poor Capita, the company brutally forced by this Government into making millions of pounds out of abusing disabled people.  “I was only following orders” has been replaced by “I was only making a buck” as the footsoldiers of austerity attempt to spin away their vile behaviour.

Stephen Duckworth is head of Capita’s PIP programme and was interviewed in The Guardian yesterday in what reads like little more than a puff piece for the public services company more commonly known as Crapita.

The new PIP Assessments will be based on the discredited and brutal Work Capability Assessment (WCA) which has driven hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people into poverty, and in some tragic cases suicide.  Infamous IT company Atos run the WCA and alongside Capita will share running the PIP.

Duckworth, who is disabled himself, boasts that 40% of staff working on PIP will be disabled people – except there is no minimum target for the number recruited, so this is basically a lie.  In an echo of the Government’s benefit cuts are good for you spin, he claims that the new regime will be ‘enabling’.

Capita even boast that the new centres will be all on the ground floor, as if having disability assessment centres which are accessible to disabled people is some great triumph.

The truth is that the no doubt handsomely paid Stephen Duckworth, and Capita themselves, are about to make a fortune on the back of human misery.  They are every bit as accountable for the decision to do that as the companies who used concentration camp labour to build the gas chanbers (Atos Healthcare’s corporate partners Siemens since you asked).

Above pic from a blog chronicling Capita’s destruction of public services in the London Borough of Barnet: http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/

Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid