As the Olympic torch arrives in Birmingham tomorrow, June 30th, we were asked to write a short piece about ATOS sponsorship of the Olympics. Here is what we wrote.
One might be forgiven for wondering just why and how ATOS ( ‘Licensed to Kill Disabled People’ by the Condems) and the corporate butchers of Bhopal Dow are two of the most prominent Olympic sponsors. How can such odious corporations be given worldwide publicity and credibility?
In exchange for lucrative payments from the government ATOS happily continue to hound and harass disabled people into even further poverty and to drive many to suicide.
Over 1 million disabled people, many too ill to work face losing their benefits or have already lost them. If you become ill or disabled in the future this could happen to you, even if you’ve worked and paid National Insurance contributions most of your life.
People with life-threatening illnesses, some with terminal cancer, and mental health conditions live in fear of their forthcoming ATOS assessments acknowledged as totally flawed by CAB, McMillan Cancer charity and a host of others. The tick-box computer assessment system takes no account of real life problems people face or the complexity of many long-term illnesses and disabilities. Yet within minutes this process which violates the fundamental medical principle of ‘first do no harm’ can strip disabled people of essential benefits and rob them of their lives.
Real-life horror stories of assessments and outcomes now abound and can be read in papers on an almost daily basis yet still the government refuse to halt or change these vicious tests. Some of the reports are little short of torture. A woman forced to try to walk to prove she couldn’t who fell onto the ground and had to be helped up again crying by her mother. Another woman forced to try to walk down a long corridor also to prove she couldn’t walk. People waiting for major heart surgery or those who have had numerous heart attacks killed by the stress of the assessments and being told they are fit to work.
A Grimsby Fisherman suffering from horrendous blood clots and open ulcers and struggles to walk who has been told by specialists at two hospitals he would be risking his life if he went back to work lost his disability benefits.
A more recent case is that of aDundeeman found fit to work who is deaf, blind and tube-fed and who needs 24 hour care. How could anyone with such profound impairments be found fit to work?
Yet this is how ATOS treats disabled people.
The BMA Local Medical Committee Conference recently voted unanimously for an end to these notorious Work Capability Assessments as Scottish GPs did earlier this year. Dr Stephen Carty has likened the UK Government’s welfare reform crackdown on disabled people to the “barbarism” of the Nazis.
The cost of these sometimes murderous assessments to the taxpayer are enormous as appeals rocket costing a predicted £50 million in tribunal costs in 2012 alone. The backlog of cases has reached epidemic proportions with tribunals sitting even on Sundays to try to reduce the 10 month backlog of cases. Yet even if a claimant wins their appeal against their assessment, and most do, the treadmill experience of being retested can start again immediately for no justifiable reasons.
As the blood of disabled people continues to drip steadily from the hands of our Olympic sponsors they should hang their heads in shame at the terror they are causing to those who deserve support not victimisation from our welfare state.
If you would like to join us in expressing your disgust at ATOS and its sponsorship of our Olympics then please email their CEO at Thiery Breton at thierry.breton@atos.net (https://www.ceoemail.com/se.php?id=10159)
Fabulous reply Linda.
ATOS should be abolished, fined billions and kicked out of this country, the same goes with Bhopal Dow who killed many people in India and left many thousands disabled. The Labour government started this assessment mess, but now the Tories have taken it to a greater degree of nonsense, the ministers in charge should be held to account, then flung in gaol for life with hard labour. Their assault on disabled people is despicable and indefensible, and many of us have been been driven to suicide by their manic decisions.
Thanks to DPAC for everything they do tirelessly on a daily basis which must be exhausting at times,unrewarding at others and constantly frustrating to remain unreported frequently by UK mainstream media.
We are fed news of Spanish football for example but not their struggle and protest or those going on all around the globe.Is this the UK or China where news is strictly controlled and fed to the masses as thought fit as in countries where human rights have never existed? The need to remain united is paramount in this fight as it is seriously concerning when we see blatant censoring of the news.
I am watching very brave journalists reporting from Syria on the murderous situation in that country.
I wonder why our journalists do not report on the deaths ocurring here?
Nowhere near the same scale and foolish to suggest such a thing but is this saying our dying people in the UK aren’t significant enough to be televised or spoken of on the radio? Except for the Mirror campaign and efforts by Sonia Poulton it is a barren land.
In no way can we compare Syria with the UK but in principle we definitely can. A UK government(not the first either) sanctioning companies that cause deaths is a shocking indictment and a denial of human rights in just the same way.
DPAC gives hope to millions of people and I know it will reap it’s reward one day and deservedly so.
I hope we can all praise it and be grateful for such effort and dedication considering this work is being carried out in a very diificult and discouraging environment.
All the more thanks then to any organisation that persists in the million little steps that chip away at these barriers until the last final small step that does the trick.Each time one of us speaks,writes or tweets,goes to an MP or does the smallest little thing helping this struggle, it adds up to a pressure which will explode sooner rather than later.Everyone who particpates in protecting the more vulnerable in society deserves our whole hearted appreciation and we owe it to one another to support and bolster every contribution.
whoops, I put :”We he then be a troll…”
I meant: “Would he then be a troll…”
Tom may indeed be a troll, but his statement has provoked a number of responces.There might not have been any without his initial provocation. After all, the rest of us appear to be totally in agreement-we hardly have anything to argue about.
Could “Tom Comerford” be an invention of a DPAC supporter, designed to just get us talking?!
We he then be a “troll” ,or would one need a different term ?
Is Tom a troll?! I don’t understand what he is on about. DPAC has become a respected campaign which gets to the heart of the troubles we disabled people are facing brought on by this government ATOS the DWP and workfare etc. They have attacked our rights to essential benefits and services and we are fighting back even without any funding. Hardly a day goes by now where I don’t see an action a protest or a press article organised by DPAC and allies. It is good to know we have DPAC on our side.
I wonder what division Tom thinks will be created/widened by DPAC’s efforts?
Long term sick and disabled people have been subjected to the same propaganda as everyone else, & I suppose there is a division between those who still believe it, and think that the welfare changes are justified & reasonable,and those who kbow better.
Showing the unenlightened (even if they are normally Tory-supporting) some DPAC literature starts to change their minds.Eventually, I believe, there will be no such division.
maybe Tom could be more specific about what he thinks we should do as I am afraid I don’t understand what he wants.
DPAC is a group that brings hope and a little light into my day- I have had a horrendous time with the DWP and ATOS and reading their peice above makes me, as a disabled person, feel there is a group that is articulate, understands the issues and will speak out for the likes of me and thousands of others. I have limited energy, but do in-bed laptop campaigning like contributing to discussions on disability group blogs, e-mailing MPs and Ministers, looking into Human Rights legislation etc. If there were not groups like DPAC making statements like above, I would feel more depressed and isolated in my campaigning and less supported. Thank you DPAC for the broad base of your work. Thank you for making me feel less alone. Thank you for speaking the truth about ATOS.
Can DPAC STOP ATTACKING THE OBVIOUS AND SUPPORT DISABLED PEOPLE WHO ARE GRASS ROOTS AND DIRECTLY AFFECTED BY CUTS…….TO EXPRESS CONCERN TO ATOS AND THEN OLYMPICS AND THE GOVERNMENT IS TO TAKE THE RESPECT AWAY FROM DISABLED PEOPLE AS TO WHY DPAC WAS SET UP………DO’NT COMPLICATE THINGS THAT CREATE MORE DIVIDES FOR DISABLED PEOPLE….THE MORE THIS CONTINUES THEN IT WILL SEE IF DPAC SUPPORTS DISABLED PEOPLE IN STRUGGLE OR USE US FOR A MORE ADVANTAGE GAIN
Tom, we are, at the moment, still all entitled to our opinions. DPAC gets results, gives hope, which is more than I can say for ATOS, Bhopal Dow and this Coalition Government who, in my opinion, have now entered the realms of “chaos politics”. Joe, Bury, Lancs
Joe, freedom to speak is spot on but to campaign on our struggle against the cuts` is campaigning for what has happened over the decades , but not a solution to what is happening now
The Coalition, DWP and Atos would just love it, if as Tom Comerford suggests we stop attacking the obvious. As with Linda,s post maybe Tom could tell us what we should be doing in specific terms. Long live DPAC I say, as one of the many DWP/ATOS victims it has been a Godsend to me.
Tom, surely DPAC can and should fight against all the ways disabled people are suffering under the current government. I can’t understand why you think challenging ATOS sponsorship of the Olympics is taking away disabled people’s self-respect. It is disgusting that a company like ATOS which has cut so many disabled people’s money and is causing so much fear and suffering is being allowed high profile sponsorship of the London Games (which they only want because it will lead them to more contracts and so even greater profits). As a person waiting for the dreaded ‘migration’ from IB to ESA via an ATOS tick-box assessment I fully support DPAC’s position. This government’s cuts as administered by ATOS are making the life of many disabled people hell and it’s great that DPAC is challenging and raising awareness of this issue.