Feb 232015
 

Many thanks to George Berger for this article:

 

A DWP reply to a Freedom of Information request implies that MAXIMUS will employ the same automated assessment aid as did Atos. It requires the claimant to answer questions about personal psychological states and behavioural capacities (say, about movement). Each question is called a descriptor, points are given to each answer, and these help a DWP decision maker (DM) to select the outcome of the entire Work Capability Assessment (WCA). The software, called Logic Integrated Medical Assessment (LIMA), is run on a computer that registers the answers and calculates a numerical score.

 

The WCA is controversial. For example, since the descriptors do not address any medical   issue, claimants are often forced by the DM to work or seek work while ill; the illness and stress can become increasingly serious. This has resulted in many deaths, some by suicide. Mounting pressure on DWP has compelled them to investigate 60 deaths. The actual number must be larger. The dangerous, irresponsible, WCA should be replaced by a humane procedure. Since LIMA is essential to the WCA, it must go.

 

But will it? The request might well have been designed to get an answer, so the next paragraph summarises the request and DWP’s reply. This will show that MAXIMUS intends to use LIMA when it takes over, in March 2015.

 

On 4 February 2005, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (SoS) granted Atos—then Atos Origin—a perpetual licence to ‘exploit’ LIMA. It has not been cancelled, but the SoS now owns the intellectual property rights to LIMA. The SoS now licenses MAXIMUS to use LIMA, while Atos will support the information technology (IT) infrastructure needed to run it for assessments. DWP will fund this IT and its required developments, e.g. bug fixing. If MAXIMUS requests any development, the company will negotiate terms with DWP.

 

Hence, MAXIMUS will use LIMA’s descriptors. Whilst the licence probably does not specify exactly what descriptors it must use, descriptors are essential parts of the software (which is why LIMA is claimed to embody ‘evidence based medicine’). By the second paragraph, they are medically dangerous, so I conclude that its last sentence is morally correct.

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 Posted by at 18:25

  2 Responses to “WILL MAXIMUS USE A TICK-BOX COMPUTER ASSESSMENT SYSTEM?”

  1. I am due to come off a programme with INGEUS and possibly be thrown to the lions, the problem is that i failed the ghastly assessment and was lied to, and i have been in the Work group for the past three years. Hopefully i will pass it this time, my consultant says i need support when climbing steep stairs, problem i am a wheelchair user.

    I am trying to help myself by working permitted work, but due to the severe chronic fatigue, which makes me very ill, the powers that be seem to think you are being lazy – the fact is we are not. No idea

  2. As I said to a DWP advisor yesterday, the tick box system does not work, can you walk 20 metres, can you climb 10 stairs? If you can do one, you can’t do the other according to the system. The thing that I fall down on in the WCA is the bit about can you carry a five pound bag of potatoes? If yes, then you can pick a £1 coin up!

    There is a system in place, that has now, after five years of the ConDem Coalition has proven, is better than the one they thought up. If a GP and/or a consultant say you are not able to work, you are not able to work. There’s no need for some, questionably qualified, healthcare professional to write a report for an non-qualified Decision Maker, it’s a Medical Note from the GP. The GP can give diagnosis and time of recovery, if any.

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