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| Alan Wheatley and Pete Murry at today's ATOS demonstration |
Guest blog by Alan Wheatley
The 'closing Atos' demonstration that Pete Murry (Brent Green Party) and I (Haringey Green Party) attended was called by Disabled People Against
the Cuts and UK Uncut, to protest at Atos Origin's sponsorship of the
London Paralympics. The company is a 'top sponsor' of the London 2012
Paralympics even while what it gives to the International Paralympic
Committee is but a fraction of the £112m Atos Healthcare is paid per
year by the Department for Work & Pensions to assess -- and
generally deny -- disabled people's eligibility for disability benefits.
About
40% of claimants denied Employment & Support Allowance take their
cases to tribunal. about 40% of those win their cases to tribunal, and
40% of those win their cases. The success rate for those
who go to tribunal with legal support is 70%, and cuts to legal aid
will no doubt skew the tribunal results in favour of Atos. Atos and its
staff who deny seriously sick and disabled people their
benefit entitlements are never fined for their 'errors' when a claimant
wins their tribunal, and a recent National Audit Office report stated
that the cost to the taxpayer of 'clearing up the mess' at tribunal is
£60m.
The
NAO called for the 'commercially sensitive' and thus confidential
contract between the DWP and Atos to be rewritten so that Atos would be
penalised for 'errors'.
I would urge anyone going for any
kind of disability benefits entitlement assessment with Atos to go with
someone. If you go alone, it is just your word against theirs regarding
how you are treated under the examination that is really more of an
observation. Moreover, I was on an anti-Atos demo outside their testing
facilities adjoining Neasden Job Centre on Tuesday 28 August, with
Kilburn
Unemployed Workers Group. A woman with a walking stick and probably in
her 50s came up to our group and told us her tale of having gone in
their in her car from Hertfordshire for a 'Work Capability Assessment'.
Though she had seen the adverse Panorama programme about how Atos
Healthcare treats vulnerable people, it had not occurred to her that she
should have someone to accompany her.
Kilburn Unemployed Workers
Group has increasing experience of members accompanying others to such
assessments, yet no experience under such circumstances of the way the
lady we met was treated when she went alone. She said, "The woman
'doctor' was so rude! She said to me while I was having difficulties
getting through the door into the examination room, 'Come on! I haven't
got all day! I've got another patient to see after you,' and 'Your
mobility problems can't be so bad if you wear lace-up shoes.'"
But
she was not the only claimant to not think of getting
others' support in attending the 'Work Capability Assessment'. Two of
our members recently attended a meeting for unemployed workers groups
aroung London that was hosted by TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber's
Secretary Tom Mellish. None of those groups had thought of accompanying
people to 'Work Programme' interviews or Atos 'examinations'.
While
today's demonstration might not have actually closed Atos, more and
more disability benefit claimants getting support in attending Atos
'Medical Examination Centres' are more likely to get civil treatment if
they go with someone.
