Letter from Ed Miliband on Atos/WCA but is it enough?

 All Posts, Atos, Benefits, Disability Rights, DisabilityCharityWatch, Letters, News, Welfare reforms  4 Responses »
Feb 252013
 
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DPAC has been passed a letter from Ed on WCA/Atos which we’ve been asked to share. While reading please remember that it was New Labour that first contracted Atos and Ed has done some visits to them too- no, not  joining DPAC, or disabled  people in  protests outside Atos offices in direct actions against the 72 deaths a week of those being put through this inhuman regime. But as a kind of badly advised PR exercise. He seems to have stopped that now.

The letter says:

              ‘We appreciate and share the concerns that have been expressed by many charities, disability groups and health care professionals regarding the WCA …’

Would these be the same multi-million big disability charities that sat at the table with Atos in the working groups on the construction of the WCA we wonder? And is Ed really talking about HCPs here? Ed’s  letter continues:

             ‘….and we agree that the government need to move quickly to remedy the problems. A large number of charities and disabled people have reported serious shortcomings with the assessment process and there is clear evidence that the WCA is not working….’

A slight understatement? Then there’s a bit of a disclaimer about previous New Labour government and what they intended for the WCA which was for it to work with applicants ‘fairly, quickly and compassionately’ with ‘appropriate support’.  Ah so no plans to scrap this inhumane disaster and start looking at it all again then? Back to Ed:

           ‘…It is clear, however, that the current Government have been too slow to adapt the Work Capability Assessment in the light of experience, and in view of the much bigger job it is now being asked to do…’

Actually they have been adapting it, mobilising distance for example has been reduced several times to make even more difficult to score those elusive Atos points removing more people from any support. Then we have a paragraph on Professor Malcolm Harrison’s independent reports and lack of progress. Let’s also remember Prof Harrison was sacked/resigned/came to the end of his appointment, apparently after appearing on Panorama citing the disaster of the WCA and Atos. But moving on:

       ‘…We would like to see the Government move much faster-for example in acting on the recommendations made by charities on dealing with mental health problems and fluctuating conditions-and to reduce the current bureaucracy of the current system. Atos healthcare also have questions to answer about the effectiveness of the current assessment process…’

        ‘..We are also very concerned that the scale of the cuts to disability benefits and social care introduced by this Government-which will total 8.6 billion over the parliament-will have a very serious impact on many disabled people..’

Isn’t it over 9 billion?

     ‘…Mr Miliband and the Shadow Frontbench will continue to press the Government on the need to put right the serious problems with the WCA…’

Cheers Ed and let us add that the work of Labour’s John McDonnell, Michael Meacher and others in bringing this Atos horror and the links between Atos and Unum in running ‘Government’ from the inside are much appreciated.

You can download the full letter from link below

 https://www.dpac.uk.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Letter-From-Ed-Milliband-Mp2.jpg

Harrowing Atos Assessment and Where are the Mental Health Champions?

 All Posts, Atos, Welfare reforms  9 Responses »
Feb 232013
 
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 Please also read below from the brilliant Kate Belgrave with many thanks to Kate for allowing us to repost-see more from Kate at https://www.katebelgrave.com/
 
 

On November 5, Mark Hoban told parliament that “we have introduced a mental health champion in every single assessment centre throughout the country.”

He absolutely had not.

 
Why cant we find out more about Atos mental health function Champions?
 
 Update Thursday 14 February 2013: Atos has been in contact and discussions are underway to set up a meeting. Interesting. They reckon they sent an email to a generic email address of one group on the list and made a phone call a week or so ago – a fairly half-hearted attempt to set up a meeting if you ask me, but at least we’re underway. Ish. I want to know what this role really does, or doesn’t, do for people with mental health problems who must go through WCAs. I’ve seen plenty of examples of the problems WCAs cause people and more needs to be known about this MFC role – the role that was created to, purportedly, improve WCAs for people with mental health problems. More soon.

———-

For several months now, as readers of this site will know, a group of Newcastle mental health service users and support workers and I have been asking Atos to agree to set a meeting up between us and Atos’ work capability assessment mental function champions. (Mental function champions do not advise or support claimants: they provide advice and coaching to Atos healthcare professionals).

I’m posting this article to let you know that despite repeated assurances from Atos that our meeting will be organised, it hasn’t been. Atos keeps saying it’ll set a meeting up for us, but never does. We call Atos and we email Atos and they say they’ll get right onto it. They don’t. So we call Atos and email Atos and they say they’ll get right onto it. They don’t. So, we got in contact with Atos again about a fortnight ago and were assured that a call would be made and a meeting would be set up. Nothing’s happened. It has occured to us that Atos doesn’t want us to meet with mental function champions. Or something. We’re sure that they’re there, etc. We just want to see them and find out more about the “role.”

Mental function champions are the individuals Malcolm Harrington suggested that Atos added to the work capability assessment process to “spread best practice amongst Atos healthcare professionals in mental, intellectual and cognitive disabilities,” whatever that means. Last year, the DWP told me that 60 of these MFCs were in place (I suppose we take that as written for now) and that they largely worked a phone advice line. Mark Hoban went somewhere else with it, into territory that may best be described as make-believe: on November 5, he told parliament that “we have introduced a mental health champion in every single assessment centre throughout the country.” The DWP rowed back on that and admitted that there wasn’t a mental function champion in every single assessment centre in the country. There were/are 60, apparently, and they’re mostly on the phone. The DWP didn’t much want to talk about that: its officers told me to contact Atos for more on MFCs. And as I say – pinning Atos down on the details has been a struggle.

In his first-year review of work capability assessments, Harrington observed that concerns had been raised about Atos assessors’ knowledge and understanding of mental health conditions. “The short training course in mental health that Atos assessors receive is proving nowhere near adequate to allow them to accurately assess applicants,” MIND said in the review.

I’d take it a good few steps further than that. Complaints and concerns about the appalling effects of WCAs on people with mental health problems are, as I’ve written before, widespread and well-documented: work capability assessments and descriptors for disability benefits place too much emphasis on basic physical readiness for work, do not account for the fluctuating nature of some mental health illnesses and assume that everyone is always in a position to offer a detailed picture of their circumstances. Once found fit for work, people’s benefits are cut, they must appeal or apply for jobseekers’ allowance, they can fall behind on their rent and bills and their mental health really begins to deteriorate, as this doctor will tell you. I have witnessed some of this myself, having attended work capability assessments with people who have mental health problems and followed them as they have gone through the stressful appeals process. Stephen, a 54-year-old man with schizophrenia who was one of those people, got a zero-points score in his initial WCA assessment, but was placed in the ESA support group on appeal – a monumental turnaround by the DWP that made everyone involved wonder at the criteria. Claimants with mental health problems have sought recourse in court: last month, the courts heard a case which, if won, will put the onus on the DWP to make sure medical evidence from practitioners is sourced from the start of the ESA application process for people who have mental health problems.

Those issues being very much the case, it is understandable that people with mental health problems and their supporters want to know how the MFC role works. Meeting with champions and asking them about their daily role seemed as good an approach to this as any. It certainly seemed a better approach than asking Atos directly, given the thin results that has yielded.

I asked Atos to explain exactly who MFCs are and the skills they bring to WCAs. Atos’ response was short on specifics: the company had, apparently, “invited leading external experts in mental health to help shape the role for the mental function champions,” and the champions “work alongside our healthcare professionals, supporting them in a range of different ways.” The word “alongside” could be considered a stretch – as we’ve seen, the DWP said that MFCs advise Atos HCPs down a phone (“telephone-based support” Atos calls it). Details of the “different ways” support was provided were not forthcoming in the response I received. I received this instead: “Our mental function champions are selected for the role because they have considerable expertise within the mental function field. They may already have higher training or a higher qualification in the field of psychiatry or have experience working in Mental Health, Learning Disability or Cognitive Impairment.” Presumably, the word “may” there means that some may not. There’s an awful lot of Maybe going on here.

Anyway. People want to meet with MFCs because they want to know more about the “role” and see it in action. It’s important. It’s very important. The MFC role is, it could be said, to be the main means by which concerns about WCAs and mental health problems have been “addressed” (ahem) to date. So – people need specifics. They need to know how, on a day-to-day basis, the role “spreads best practice” so that it improves WCAs for people going through them – assuming that is what is does. As I’ve observed – the jury’s out on that one. Things are too difficult for people going through WCAs for this topic to be left at a few press statements from Atos. I know we’re not the only people who are interested, too. I’m also pretty sure that Atos doesn’t want us to be.

The beginning of the end for ATOS

 Atos, News, Politics  5 Responses »
Feb 102013
 
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The Public Accounts Committee this week published their report on the Work Capability Assessment and criticised the Department for Work and Pensions for their handling of the contract with Atos, for allowing them a monopoly and for being complacent about the numbers of wrong decisions.

See the reports through Black Triangle’s website:  https://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/02/08/public-accounts-committee-report-on-the-dwp-atos-contract-management-of-medical-services/

BBC news and Margaret Hodge, Chair of the Committee speaking: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21376915

DPACers speaking to the media this week about the WCA:

John Smith and Kevin Watts were on Radio BBC Northampton:  (about 1 hour 6 mins into the programme): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p013kwpk/Stuart_Linnell_at_Breakfast_OneThird_Of_Incapacity_Claimants_Are_Fit_For_Work/

Channel 4 were going to do a story but horse meat knocked it off the running order.

DPAC Press Release: WCA Descriptors fail, DWP fails, Atos fails.

 All Posts, Atos, Welfare reforms  7 Responses »
Jan 162013
 
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DPAC Press Release 

WCA Descriptors fail, DWP fails, Atos fails.  

Does any part of Work Capability Assessment actually work?

A recent case has come to light which proves beyond doubt, as many people suspected, that:

 -the Work Capability Assessment is a complete shambles,

 -the WCA Descriptors are completely inadequate at assessing fitness for work,

-the Descriptors fail miserably to capture a person’s level of disability,

-the Descriptors fail to predict the long term prognosis of a disabled or a sick person,

-the DWP and Atos over-reliance on these descriptors explain the number of successful appeals against Fit to Work decisions.

 It is unimaginable that the DWP and Atos are unaware of these failings, however they continue to give more weight to WCA Descriptors than to Professional Medical Evidence.

 In the following case, and many other cases, judgement based on Medical Evidence is the only solid basis for robust, fair and reliable assessment of a level of disability.

 It is also the only solid basis for predictability of ability to return  to work. This is  clearly illustrated by Charles’ story (shown below).

 Finally the asinine crudeness and sheer stupidity of what the DWP have the impudence to call a ‘medical report’ is shown by a copy of Charles’ report (attached).
If there is a case to illustrate the inadequacy and the irrelevance of  using Descriptors for WCA assessment, it is this.

 If there is a case to show the casual and irresponsible attitude of the Department of Work and Pensions towards Sick and Disabled benefit Claimants, it is this.

 If there is a case to show that Atos computer based assessments are not fit for purpose, it is this.

 How much longer will this rotten system be allowed to continue to fail Sick and Disabled people within our Society?

 

Here is Charles’ Story:

 Charles stopped work after contracting a serious viral infection in July 2009 and was also diagnosed as having ME in November 2009. He claimed ESA in June 2010.

 In 2011 he had an Atos WCA assessment, which found him fit to work but after appeal he was put in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG).

 He was placed again in the WRAG after a second assessment in January 2012, although he felt he should be in the Support Group, but was too ill to appeal the decision. 

A few months later, in April 2012, he was diagnosed as having Leukaemia and a degenerative dysfunction of the spinal cord.

 Following this, on several occasions he contacted the Benefits Office to request to be put in the Support Group, but received no direct response.

 In April 2012, his ESA was stopped because his savings exceeded the threshold but in August 2012 he notified the Benefits Office that that was no longer the case and sent a letter in September to explain his financial situation.

 He did not receive any response, and he was still not receiving any benefits, although in September 2012, he was sent another ESA50 form to complete.

 In September 2012, he requested a copy of the report from his last ATOS assessment from January 2012.

 Although he did not receive this report despite a further request, a few days later he received a Medical Report dated mid 2012, which until then he did not know existed, having never met the ‘author’ of the Report, a Registered Nurse and Approved  Disability Analyst.

 Reading the report, Charles was astonished to discover that although the nurse who reviewed the medical evidence stated explicitly that he was unlikely to return to work the medical evidence did not score any points for him against the descriptors.

 As Charles has been too unwell to return to work, it seems that the nurse’s judgement, based on the medical evidence presented to her, was right, and that the descriptors were unable to capture Charles’ level of disability and his long term prognosis.

 This fact was recognised by the nurse who wrote that if Charles was called to Board he would score above the threshold but that there was insufficient evidence that he met the LCWRA descriptors.

 But because the DWP decided that more weight should be given to the descriptors than the medical evidence, the nurse’s recommendations were disregarded, although ultimately they were correct.

 Charles pursued the matter, with assistance, and the decision not to place him in the Support Group was reversed in November 2012, backdated to February 2012

 

 the link takes you to  a copy of the Medical Report for Charles’ case (reproduced with his permission), clearly showing that the Descriptors give Charles a clean bill of health, while in reality he is completely unfit for work.

 For further information, please contact Annie Howard anniehoward83@gmail.com

 ESA report form 

 

DWP and Atos make a mockery of the Data Protection Act: Annie Howard

 All Posts, Atos, Benefits, Welfare reforms  14 Responses »
Jan 112013
 
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Many Disability Benefits Claimants will have noticed on their ESA85 form a box containing the words “Harmful information – not to be copied to the client”.

 Some will have understood this as being information which would be “likely to cause serious harm to the physical or mental health or condition of the patient or any other persons”, and in the context of consent to treatment, the GMC states:

 “You should not withhold information necessary for decision making unless you judge that disclosure … would cause the patient serious harm. In this context serious harm does not mean the patient would become upset, or decide to refuse treatment.”

 Or if they checked the contract between Atos and DWP, they would learn that harmful information “means information unknown to the Claimant which if disclosed to him may be harmful to his health”. And because “harmful information” is quite vague, in 2011 the DWP issued further guidance in the WCA handbook:

Harmful information: This is information which has not been disclosed to the claimant by their medical attendant, and of which they are unaware.  It is information which would be considered as seriously harmful to their health if divulged to them and is the only type of information which under the regulations may be withheld from the claimant in the event of a review or appeal.  Examples are details of:

­ Malignancy

­ Progressive neurological conditions

­ Major mental illness.

Revised WCA Handbook

ESA (LCW/LCWRA) Amendment

Regulations 2011

 What claimants might not have envisaged is that this “Harmful Information” box could be used as a means to covertly influence decision makers or the tribunal appeals service by prejudicing a case.

 Because of one DWP employee’s mistake or stupidity, one claimant who obtained his report was able to see what “harmful information” means for Atos and the DWP:

 ”Client very obnoxious, sarcastic and complained about the assessment format and the typical day. He stated that they are not relevant and asked that I contacted his Consultant. Claimant very unco-operative and makes the assessment very difficult. He kept taking his medication throughout the assessment”. 

 Underneath these comments, a DWP employee wrote:

”ADMIN
When bundle of evidence is back from photocopying, please add this sheet to the submission for the TAS – DO NOT send to customer!
Thanks
Anne
16/3”

 

 Harmful? Well unless being obnoxious and sarcastic are to be considered as a major mental illness, these comments amount to a subjective judgement, seen by the claimant’s lawyer as libellous.

 But the comments are certainly harmful and would have had, as the claimant believes, a bearing on the outcome of his case (he scored 0 points), and because of fears of what this could do to his reputation and professional standing, on the advice of his lawyer, he decided not to appeal. Had he done so, these comments would still have been withheld from him and his lawyer, in accordance with DWP guidelines.

 For this to happen, both the Atos HP and the DWP employee would have had to disregard the DWP guidelines, and it would also have escaped the scrutiny of any report auditors. This seems too much of a coincidence, (although incompetence in the case of the DWP and Atos can never be ruled out).

 What are the implications?

1)    It seems that the DWP, with the complicity of Atos, has found a way to circumvent the law it is supposed to uphold and to use it against the interests of people the DPA is supposed to protect

 2)    No claimant can be sure of what is contained in a report, if there is a parallel report which is withheld from claimants

 3)    Claimants and legal counsels go to appeals without access to all the evidence

 4)    The system is geared to trick claimants and cannot be described as fair, transparent or accountable.

 

 


 

Disabled people Vs DWP/Atos Judicial Review on WCA Join DPAC Vigil on 16th at 12pm

 Action, All Posts, Atos, Disability Rights, Events, legal challenges, Welfare reforms  9 Responses »
Jan 102013
 
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Next week sees 2 disabled people take on the government in a judicial review (1) on the grounds that the process is not accessible for people with mental health conditions.
 
On 15th, 16th & 18th of January lawyers for 2 members of the mental health resistance network
(2) will be in the administrative high court, the division of the royal courts of justice (3) which handles judicial reviews , in London .
The DWP introduced WCAs to assess disabled people for eligibility for disability benefits. Despite criticism from MPs,(4) the British Medical Association (5) and campaigners, this policy rumbles on.
 
Dozens of disabled people are dying every week (6) following assessment. nearly 40% (7) of those who appeal the decision to remove benefits, have the decision overturned, meaning thousands of people are wrongly being put through a traumatic and harrowing experience needlessly. The governments own appointed assessor of the policy has ruled it ‘unfit for purpose’ .
 
This isn’t good enough. This would not be acceptable in any other government contract, yet goes without comment or sanction by this government. No-one is called to account, no-one takes responsibility.
 
DPAC and MHRN call on ALL activists and supporters to join them in a vigil outside the court to show your support for those taking the case, and your disgust at this shameful and harmful policy.
 
Action is :
 
Weds 16th January
@ 12pm
Royal courts of justice, the strand, London wc2a 2ll.
 
Send a strong, clear signal to those who make the decisions.
 
We are NOT going away, we are not backing down. There is no hiding place.
 
We will fight you in parliament, on the streets and in the courts!
 
ENDS
 
p.s send messages of support to Mentalhealthresistance@lists.aktivix.org or mail@dpac.uk.net
 
1.https://atosvictimsgroup.co.uk/2012/07/26/judicial-review-of-work-capability-assessment-granted/
2. mentalhealthresistance.org
3. https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/rcj-rolls-building/administrative-court
4. https://www.disabilitywales.org/1168/3817
5. https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/gps-vote-to-end-the-atos-farce/
6. https://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html
7. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/press_20120817

New Left Project: Prospects for 2013 Linda Burnip

 Action, All Posts, Atos, Disability Rights, DLA, Independent Living, Independent Living Fund ILF, Welfare reforms  1 Response »
Jan 072013
 
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The next phase in the government’s assault on services for  disabled people is the withdrawal of the Independent Living Fund. This needs to be at the centre of campaigning around dignity for disabled people, argues Linda Burnip from Disabled People Against Cuts. Part of our series of short contributions from prominent writers and activists looking to the year ahead.

You can read the rest of this excellent piece at the New Left Project HERE

Co-op Campaign: stop the Atos Contract!

 Action, All Posts, Atos, Disability Rights  7 Responses »
Jan 062013
 
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The Co-Op have said that their new occupational health contract starts in March and that the bidding process for the new contract has already begun. The Co-Op have refused to publicly rule out a bid from Atos. Tendering processes are generally geared towards awarding the contract to the lowest bidder. If the Co-Op were going to make their decision based on ethical concerns, which they have said will be a factor, they would have already publicly rejected a bid from Atos. Atos’s unethical behaviour has already been well documented in the mainstream media and Disabled People Against Cuts have compiled a list of Atos’s unethical behaviour for the Co-Op. Pickets with calls for boycotts and communication blockades and the resulting damage to a company’s reputation does have a significant economic impact and has been shown to work with other campaigns. The Co-Op is particularly vulnerable to such tactics as their ethical image is their unique selling point in their part of the market.Hundreds of people have already complained about the contract on TheCo-operative Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/TheCooperative
and by tweeting @TheCo-operative:
https://twitter.com/TheCooperative

Why not join them and tell the Co-Op that you will stop shopping at their supermarkets or that you will close your Co-Op bank account unless they publicly state they will not be renewing their contact with Atos? 

You can also email customer.relations@co-op.co.uk or contact Chris Mills, their Ethical Policy Manager: 
chris.mills@co-operative.coop
Telephone: 0161 827 6160
Mobile: 07921 893 949
Facsimile: 01618276230
Up to 5 free faxes can be sent from this website:
https://www.freepopfax.com/
Perhaps you could fax them the gift of a file of a classic book, many of which are available to download for free online.

————————–————————–

Some background information:

It has recently been discovered that the Co-Op Bank and group of companies have had a 4 year occupational health contract with Atos and that the contract is due for renewal. Atos make huge profits carrying out work capability assessments on sick and disabled people on behalf of the Government. As was exposed by a Channel 4 documentary they automatically pass 7 out of 8 people as fit for work – to comply with Government targets for benefit cuts. Their decisions are not based on objective medical opinion. Citizens Advice Bureau Scotland have received 24,000 complaints about Atos. CAB win 80% of appeals against Atos finding people fit for work. The Daily Record reported on a Government survey that showed half of those found fit for work by Atos end up destitute.

The Government are cutting benefits as part of their austerity measures aimed mainly at the poor, while those responsible for the public debt continue to get richer. Despite the media headlines about one or two bankers losing their bonuses, generally bankers’ bonuses and those of company directors continue to grow. Sales in luxury goods are also rising. Nearly 50,000 new property millionaires were created in the UK in 2012. £2 billion of cuts in housing benefit and child tax credit where announced in the chancellor’s autumn statement, while £3 billion of cuts in corporation tax was announced in the same statement.

The Co-Op sells itself as an ethical company, but what ethical standards are they maintaining by not publicly ruling out awarding a new contract that gives millions to a company that cuts the benefits of sick and disabled people?

Claimants Resisting Unfair Treatment, Cuts and Harassmentwww.thecrutchcollective.blogspot.co.uk

Supported by 
Clydeside Industrial Workers Of The World 
www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Clydeside-IWW/216550781713688

Glasgow Solidarity Federation
www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Glasgow-Solidarity-Federation/237568036376381

Con-Dem Love! Kevin Robins 2013 Official DPAC Anti-Atos Anthem

 Action, All Posts, Atos, Disability Rights, News  5 Responses »
Jan 052013
 
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With thanks to Kevin and Steve. Please share, tweet spread as far and wide as possible

© by Robins/Clark

If you would like to know more about DPAC or make a contribution to our work please visit our website www.dpac.uk.net or email: mail@dpac.uk.net or twitter: @Dis_PPL_Protest *Special thanks to Rob Livingstone for some of the excellent artwork contribution on this video.

Con-Dem Love!

They’re screwing up my mind , wasting my time
Keeping up the pressure on this heart of mine
They’ve got a real obsession , egos out of hand
Out to make a make a killing from their “welfare” scam.

This is Con-Dem love, Con-Dem love, Con-Dem love ,
Condemn .. … Con-Dem love.

Laid my cards on the table told their GP straight
Depressions biting hard and that’s hard to take
I showed him the scars on my arms where I’d cut
He looked me in the eye and said you’re “working fit”

This is Con-Dem love, Con-Dem love, Con-Dem love
They’re going to show you what they’re made of.

On a circle of emotion on the treadmill again
They took away my social, can’t pay the rent
What can do, so ill, I can’t fight,
I toss and turn I stay awake all night
Darkened thoughts are haunting me
I’m so afraid of this reality

This is Con-Dem love , Con-Dem love, Con-Dem love
They’re going to show you what they’re made of.

Sitting in a corner — with the lights switched off
This no win situation’s lost
Can’t make no plans for you or for me
There’s no reason to go on you see .

This is Con-Dem love , Con-Dem love, Con-Dem love
They’re going to show you what they’re made of.
They’re going to show you what they’re made of

They’re screwing up my mind, wasting my time
Keeping up the pressure on this heart of mine
They’ve got real obsession, egos out of hand
Out to make a make a killing from their “welfare” scam.

They’re screwing up my mind , taking away my life x 3

© by Robins/Clark

Legal Case against Worcester Council launched- and more legal cases for 2013

 Action, All Posts, Atos, Disability Rights, Independent Living, legal challenges, Welfare reforms  3 Responses »
Dec 302012
 
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Earlier this year DPAC highlighted Worcester Council’s ‘maximum expenditure’ policy which would see new applicants for social ‘care’ be part of potential institutionalisation in order to cut costs. Other council’s have announced similiar measures.  The Redditch Standard reports on the case, which shows that disabled people do not need to put up with these measures in silence but have the right and need to fight back at local and national levels. This month the closure of the Independent Living Fund was announced for 2015. This will also be challenged legally by six ILF users early next year. Both measures break aticle 19 on independent living as outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People. There will also be legal challenges on the recording of Atos assessments and the Judicial Review on the Work Capability Assessment by the Mental Health Resistance network in 2013.

Details of the Worcester case by Irwin Mitchell can be found here

DPAC will not be resting in any tents in 2013 but fighting with disabled people in the courts, on the streets, online and everywhere we can

Media full of Newtown tragedy but far worse ignored

 Action, All Posts, Atos, Benefits, disability hate crime, DLA, Independent Living, Politics, Welfare reforms  9 Responses »
Dec 152012
 
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14/12/2012 · by skwalker1964 · Bookmark the permalink. ·

This is a difficult post to write, but I think it has to be written. So please, don’t make the mistake of thinking what I’m about to say means my heart isn’t breaking at the tragic loss of lives in yet another US school shooting.

As I write, the news media are showing constant footage and updates about the terrible events in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman has entered a school armed with multiple weapons and killed, according to the latest report, at least 27 people, including 18 children, having already killed both of his parents and, so it’s reported, his brother.

It’s an awful, awful situation. I have three children, though now grown up, and one of them is a teacher, so my heart goes out to those affected. But at the same time as I’m appalled and shocked, I can’t help thinking ‘But what about…?’

You see, because of the things I write about, and the research I do for what I write, I’m aware that there are things which are just as bad – and on a much greater scale – going on constantly in this country. The news channels are devoting non-stop coverage of the events in Newtown, and it’s understandable. What isn’t understandable is why the events in this country – also horrific, and hurting far greater numbers of people – barely merit a mention in the news media, let alone saturation coverage.

Already, in the US, the pro-gun lobbies are mobilising to defend the ‘right’ to carry guns. Within minutes of the coverage beginning, I had already heard a commentator talk of how the ‘gun lobby’ was trotting out its well-worn claim: ‘Guns don’t kill people. People kill people‘, and is even trying to use the tragedy to call for more guns, arguing that fewer people would be killed by guns if more people had them ‘to defend themselves’, and that schoolteachers should carry guns to defend their pupils.

The mind boggles. But the thing is, they’re partly right. People do kill people – but guns allow them to kill others in far greater numbers than they could otherwise. Because people kill people, the more you can keep them away from guns, the more sense it makes. If you put guns in their hands, more people are going to die.

But we face a parallel situation here in the UK, and it’s what is causing those barely-mentioned and much larger tragedies I referred to above. Not because we put guns into people’s hands, but because we have power in the hands of people of ill will, stupidity, or both.

Power doesn’t kill people. People kill people. But power allows them to do so on a vast scale. Perhaps you think I’m crass to do anything but join in with the public show of horror and grief about the events in Connecticut – but let me tell you about some of those almost-hidden tragedies first, and then if you still think I’m crass, at least you’ll be making an informed judgment.

In Newtown, 29 people died in today’s shooting, plus the gunman, according to the latest news. It’s truly awful – but here are some other figures, which I hope will shock you commensurately. Because they should:

24,000

24,000 is the number of people who died in the UK last winter because of ‘fuel poverty’. That’s 24 thousand people who died because they couldn’t afford to heat their homes properly, and who died either of hypothermia, or of illnesses resulting from their inability to keep warm.

It’s truly a national scandal. And yet I can barely recall a mention of it on the news channels, and little more in the press. Certainly nothing like the coverage that we’re seeing now about the school shooting – or even the near-continuous coverage of the very sad death of Jacintha Saldanha. One royal-related death is big news, but 24,000 avoidable deaths, in a single winter and from a clearly identifiable, remediable cause, are apparently not. But then, the progress of the Olympic torch around the country was deemed worthy of mass coverage when the plan to privatise the NHS wasn’t, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.

Our government has the power to do something about fuel poverty, in order to prevent a repeat of this national shame. So what is it doing? In a time of steep rises in fuel costs that are expected to continue for the foreseeable future – it is capping benefit rises at 1%, well below the general rate of inflation and miles below the rate of increase in energy costs (13% up to October this year, and another 8% or so from January)

330,000 – or 1.9 million

I wrote a couple of months ago about the government’s planned change from Disability Living Allowance (DLA), which is currently paid (in varying amounts) to some 3.2 million people, to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Iain Duncan Smith’s Department of Work & Pensions devised the new payment with the specific goal of excluding at least 500,000 people from the new payment who currently qualify for DLA, as a cost-saving measure.

Basing my calculations on this figure, I showed that the change will push at least 85,000 people below the poverty line – but that figure is based on an extremely unlikely hypothetical scenario in which every single person excluded is single and has no dependents. On a more likely situation, the number of people pushed into poverty will number in the hundreds of thousands.

But it appears I was over-cautious. Yesterday, the Tory Minister for Disabled People, Esther McVey, told the House of Commons that, of the 560,000 people who will be assessed for the new benefit by 2015, 330,000 are expected to be excluded from the benefit. That’s an exclusion rate of 59%. 3.2 million people receive DLA, so if the same failure rate applies as they become due for reassessment, that means around 1.9 million disabled people who will lose crucial support. Using the same calculations as I applied to the 500,000 initially flagged to be excluded, it means almost a million people pushed below the poverty line.

Factor that into the death rate from energy poverty, and you’re looking at a situation where the 24,000 deaths last winter will look like nothing compared to what we’re going to see, let alone the 30 innocent deaths in Connecticut.

453 – and counting

That’s the number of additional suicides that happened last year, compared to before the financial crash. As growing numbers of people face financial catastrophe, more and more are seeing suicide as the only escape. The government’s response? To demonise the unemployed,  disabled people and low earners who are forced to claim benefits – and then to cut those benefits and deepen the despair, while the rich get richer.

73 – a week

This, according to the campaign group DPAC, is the number of deaths (including suicides) among disabled people as a result of the government’s programme of Work Capability Assessments (WCAs), which is categorising people as fit for work when they are plainly not. 70% are eventually overturned on appeal – but the stress of the process and the fear of losing essential support are killing some and causing others to commit suicide. And the government is responding by capping benefits even for those who do pass the test – and closing Remploy, which provides suitable work for disabled people, while Iain Duncan Smith sneers at them and tells them ‘this is better’.

24,000. 330,000. 1.9 million. 453. 73 a week. All numbers at least as deserving of mass media attention as the 30 killed in Connecticut – and all conspicuous by their absence from the BBC and other news media.

Power doesn’t kill people. People kill people. But people with power can kill a lot of people – and this government is wreaking havoc among ordinary and vulnerable people.

The deaths of the 30 (as of now) innocents in Newtown will, rightly, bring people out onto the streets in the US – for prayer vigils, to lay flowers, to protest in favour of (and, insanely, against) gun control.

If the people of the UK became as aware, en masse, of what is taking place under the coalition government as they surely are now of what has happened in Connecticut, the streets would be packed with people protesting – and streaming to the polls in 2015 or earlier to get rid of those in power, killing people.

Which is, probably, why we’re not seeing those other numbers and many like them on our television screens.

With many thanks to Steve for agreeing to repost- please support this excellent blog-see more at https://skwalker1964.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/media-full-of-newtown-tragedy-but-far-worse-is-ignored/

Follow Steve on twitter : @skywalker 1964

 

Legal challenge launched against ‘unfair’ government disability test

 All Posts, Atos, Benefits, legal challenges, Welfare reforms  11 Responses »
Dec 142012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

Public Interest Lawyers    Press Release – 14 December 2012

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.”

 A spokesperson for False Economy, whose investigations into WCA recordings informed some of the background to the recording debate, said that the rights of ESA claimants are crucial.

 “Too many people feel vulnerable in this process. People feel that their final assessment reports inaccurately reflect information exchanged during work capability assessments. We’ve found it hard to pin down the DWP on recording policy. Universal recording, and giving people the opportunity to see their WCA reports before final eligibility decisions are made, will go some way towards restoring fairness and accuracy while the WCA process continues.”

 Tessa Gregory of Public Interest Lawyers, Mr Lynch’s solicitor states:

 “The Work Capability Assessment process needs urgent reform. There is an unacceptable risk of unfairness in the current system and we hope these safeguards will be instituted to help mitigate that risk.”

 TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

 “Assessments of disability must be fair and proportionate, treat people with respect and be part of a consistent system. There is overwhelming evidence that they have fallen far short of these basic standards. It is right that they should be challenged in court.”

 END

 Contact at Public Interest Lawyers:

 Tessa Gregory, tessa.gregory@publicinterestlawyers.co.uk

0121 515 5069

 see: https://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/13/disabled-man-government-court-benefit-test

see:https://www.dpac.uk.net/2012/11/dpac-survey-responses-on-wca-what-harrington-didnt-ask/

 

Rotten access to Atos assessment centres

 Atos, Disability Rights, Welfare reforms  5 Responses »
Dec 132012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

Cross posted and with thanks to Kate Belgrave

Ever since disabled man Geoff Meeghan was trapped in an Atos assessment centre a week or so ago when a fire alarm went off at the centre there’s been much discussion about the accessibility – or otherwise – of the buildings that Atos is using to hold work capability assessments for the employment and support allowance. ESA is a disability allowance, so it follows that a lot of people who must attend work capability assessments are wheelchair users and/or people who have mobility problems. You’d think that at the very least, buildings would be properly adapted to make entering and leaving those buildings as easy as possible for everyone.

Au contraire.

I took the video below in September when I accompanied DPAC campaigner Patrick Lynch and his carer Stephen to the assessment centre in Archway where Patrick’s WCA was to be held. I’ve uploaded it here to give you an idea of the rubbish which passes for accessibility in some of these centres.

As you’ll see in the video, the front doors at the centre wouldn’t open. A woman who was smoking a cigarette out the front came over to show us how to open the doors – she pulled them open with her bare hands. The “lift” was a single platform squeezed into the right-hand side of the groundfloor entrance. To call the lift, we had to hold the call button down and keep it held down. The door into the cupboard (which it was, literally) which housed this platform opened outwards, into the path of the wheelchair. Once inside, the platform only started moving when the call button was held down. It certainly took more than one person to operate everything.

I don’t know what would have happened if there had been a fire. Using this lift for escape purposes would have been challenging, all right, especially if you tried to fit more than one wheelchair in it. There may have been a brilliant, if not brilliantly obvious, escape route out back, of course, but if there was, nobody told us about it. Would we have had to find it ourselves?

— Kate Belgrave

See also: DPAC Survey responses on WCA: Atos and DWP Exposed

Norfolk: ANTI-ATOS/BENEFIT CUTS DEMONSTRATION

 Action, Atos, Events  No Responses »
Nov 282012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

December 7th

11am – 12pm

St Mary’s House, Duke St, Norwich,

NR3 1QA

If you would like your chance to show how you feel about Atos and the benefit cuts

 feel free to come along and

demonstrate with us

Bring your placards, whistles and horns to help raise awareness of how the Work Capability Assessment system and Atos are affecting peoples lives

Protest the cuts to vital services for EVERYONE

ATOS PROTEST (download as Word doc)

Deaths and Suicides linked to WCA: more evidence needed for justice

 Action, All Posts, Atos, News, Welfare reforms  12 Responses »
Nov 252012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

At DPAC we receive regular emails from people who have lost loved ones and attribute this to the process of the WCA, indeed with recent evidence of 73 deaths and suicides per week we are seeing these emails increasing.  December 3rd is being marked as a day of remembrance for all Atos victims. Disability activist Samuel Miller from Canada is taking this outrage against human rights as far as he possibly can in an effort to secure justice.

Samuel has made many efforts at the United Nations level on behalf of disabled people in the UK and the constant attacks they face under the Tory regime. We all owe him a debt of gratitude. He is looking for evidence of linked Atos deaths. DPAC supports this and want to help in any way we can –below we repost the blog from Vox Political with permission from Mike from Wales.

Please help if you can by publicising and also subscribe to Vox Political at: https://mikesivier.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/ids-off-the-hook-with-icc-so-evidence-needed-of-atos-deaths/

IDS off the hook with ICC – so evidence needed of Atos deaths

 Brian McArdle. On the BBC’s Question Time last Thursday, Iain Duncan Smith flew into a rage when Owen Jones challenged him about what happened to Mr McArdle, “57 years old, paralysed down one side, blind in one eye; he couldn’t speak. He died one day after being found ‘fit for work’ by Atos.”

People whose family members have died while going through the DWP/Atos work capability assessment are being urged to contact a disability specialist – who has been seeking international legal action against the austerity-enforced injustice.

Vox Political reported back in September that Samuel Miller had contacted the International Criminal Court in The Hague, intending to file a complaint against Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling and Maria Miller, the ministers at the Department for Work and Pensions, considered most responsible for “draconian welfare reforms and the resultant deaths of their society’s most vulnerable”.

Mr Miller got in touch over the weekend, but said that the result had been disappointing: “They stated that the International Criminal Court has a very limited jurisdiction. The Court may only address the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes as defined by Articles 6 to 8 of the Rome Statute.”

The Rome Statute is the document under which the ICC was established. Article 7, which covers crimes against humanity, states: “For the purpose of this Statute, “crime against humanity” means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack:

“(k) Inhumane acts … intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”

I thought this – Article 7 (k) – was a perfect description of what the DWP and its ministers are trying to achieve, and Mr Miller agreed. But he said: “Clearly the ICC is striving to discourage the filing of austerity complaints.”

There is a way forward. He added: “On a welcome note, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights recently acknowledged that austerity measures may violate human rights — which certainly is a step in the right direction.”

He’s right. The chair of the UN committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Ariranga Govindasamy Pillay said on October 23 that, although member states face tough decisions when dealing with rising public deficits, austerity measures are potentially violations of their legal obligations to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

“All States Parties should avoid at all times taking decisions which lead to the denial or infringement of economic, social and cultural rights,” Pillay said, citing an open letter to States Parties from the committee earlier this year that clarified the committee’s position on austerity measures.

By ratifying the Covenant, member states like the UK have a legally binding obligation to progressively improve, without retrogression, universal access to goods and services such as healthcare, education, housing and social security and to ensure just and favourable conditions of work, without discrimination, in accordance with established international standards. These rights must be achieved by using the maximum of available resources.

Pillay pointed out that austerity measures are also a disincentive to economic growth and thereby hamper progressive realization of economic and social rights.

The committee had pointed out that social insecurity and political instability, as seen in parts of Europe today, were also potential effects of the denial or infringement of economic, social and cultural rights.

The poor, women, children, persons with disabilities, older persons, people with HIV/AIDS, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, migrants and refugees were particularly at risk, the committee had noted.

Having identified the possibility, we come to the burden of proof. Mr Miller said: “My best hope lies in procuring coroner’s reports where the cause of death is found to be destitution and/or suicide.”

Inevitably, there is a problem. The UK Coronial system does not involve the collating of such information, nor does it look for national trends. The role of the Coroner is case specific, so wider information is not available. This is because the system of inquests into deaths was never intended to investigate whether those deaths were being caused by insane decisions of the government itself.

The law in relation to death certification may be amended in 2014 to provide for Medical Examiners whose role will be to examine such matters – but that is two years from now, and the DWP/Atos system could pile up another 7,600 bodies in that time (using the generally-accepted average of 73 deaths per week).

Mr Miller has written to the DWP, seeking a change of coroners’ duties to allow proper and robust reporting of trends such as stress-related deaths, suicides and/or destitution deaths of welfare recipients and recipients who perished shortly after being stripped of their benefits can be reported to both the DWP and the Ministry of Justice.

But I think we all know there is little chance of success there. This government is hardly going to hand over the tools by which its own ministers might end up in an international court. They’re insane, but they’re not stupid!

So people are going to have to do it themselves. We know about high-profile cases in which deaths have been blamed on Atos. Information about the others needs to be available now.

This is why I want to appeal for anyone who has lost a loved one because of the DWP/Atos work capability assessment system to get in touch with Mr Miller. He needs to know the verdict that was reached at the inquests into their deaths.

His email address is disabilityinliterature@gmail.com

I would strongly urge that anyone writing to Mr Miller keeps their correspondence to the point. It is to be hoped that he will receive a strong response, but this entails a large amount of work. It is therefore important to make that work as easy as possible, perhaps by putting the deceased’s name, address and the verdict at the top of your email.

Follow mike on twitter :@MidWalesMike

 

DPAC Survey responses on WCA: Atos and DWP Exposed

 All Posts, Atos, News, Politics, Resources, Welfare reforms  11 Responses »
Nov 182012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

98.4% said that they would prefer the WCA to be recorded

Almost 70% were not aware that they could ask for a recording. The lack of any mention of recording of the WCA in the Atos literature helped the ‘lack of demand’ issue.

For those that had asked for a recording but were refused one almost half 40% were not given a reason for the refusal of the remainder: nearly a quarter (24.5%) were simply told they were not allowed a recording, 20% were told the machines were broken and the remainder were told Atos staff did not like recordings.

Of those refused a recording 65% were told they must attend their appointment without recording or be classified as a ‘no show’. While 23% were not aware that a recording would not be carried out until they arrived at the assessment centre where they faced the choice of returning home and risking loss of benefits or staying and going through the assessment without recording.

74% said that it was difficult for them to travel to the assessment centre, we heard from those who were sent for assessments away from their closest centre with complicated travel routes

Almost half (47.5%) were not aware that they could ask for a home assessment, of those that did and asked for a home assessment none believed they received a satisfactory response to the refusal to grant a home assessment

64% of those that said their doctors were told not to provide written support said this was because of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

Some respondents said that the DWP had written to their doctors to tell them not to issue ‘fit notes’ or written support, others that doctors resented such directives and would supply these based on their expertise and knowledge of the individual.

The survey drew 733 responses. It asks questions that were not asked in the Harrington review, questions on issues of recording, access, doctors input and the apparent increasing influence of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on doctors’.  As such it represents the first evidence based research report on these issues.

The responses contribute to a growing list of criticisms on the experiences of the WCA, welfare reform/cuts and their impacts on the lives of disabled people. It also adds to the growing list of criticism against Atos the company contracted by the Government to carry out assessments, at the cost of 1.10 million pounds per year. Significant concerns are being raised on the financial cost of appeals against Atos WCA decisions, currently running at 60-80 million per year[1], but it is the human cost of suicides and premature deaths rising from 32 per week to 73[ii] a week of those undergoing this process that represents a larger cost. It is a UK outrage that these assessments continue.

The survey responses show the tricks, barriers and bullying tactics used to prevent audio recordings. How difficult home assessments are and how centres, access and travel are made problematic and the ways that doctors input is being ignored and appears to be increasingly directed by the Department for Work and Pensions. The survey is a collection of the ways people are being driven to crisis point, and worse by a system with no clear public accountability. (See also 76% entitled to support after appeal figures and appeals increase by 40%)

DPAC, Black Triangle, and Social Welfare Union, along with the British Medical Association and a growing number of organisations and MPs condemn the WCA and call for its immediate end. We hope the contents of this report will help those who fail to understand why these calls are being made to begin to understand why this is the only justifiable option.

One person said:

If I filled a benefit claim form in and deliberately lied, misled with my answers and omitted information / events relevant to my claim with the view to gain financially – I would have my ass hauled into court on charges of benefit fraud. The DWP and ATOS are doing exactly those things with the farce they call an assessment and are both gaining financially by, dare I say, producing fraudulent reports when assessing peoples eligibility for benefit. I suggest people pool together, write statements describing their experience with ATOS and the assessment, highlight the discrepancies between what was said / happened in the assessment and what was written into the report .. and when enough statements are gathered, hand them to the top cop in the country and demand they launch an investigation into the activities of both ATOS and the DWP on the grounds of fraudulent behaviour.

From the quotes and responses to our survey the comment is entirely valid.

Download the report in WORD by clicking this link: final wca surveydpac

Download the report in PDF by clicking this link: final-wca-surveydpac-1

 

DPAC Complaint and request for further investigation to the Public Accounts Committee on ATOS PIP tender

 All Posts, Atos, Benefits, Welfare reforms  10 Responses »
Nov 152012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

Dear Committee Members,

 Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is being introduced in April 2013 and Atos Healthcare has been selected by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as one of the delivery partners in the UK.

 DPAC wishes to lodge a formal complaint that its name has been inappropriately used in the PIP Tender Documents submitted by Atos to the DWP as part of the Claimant Representative Groups with which Atos claims to have a successful record of engagement.

 The tender document specifically states “Before designing our PIP solution, Atos engaged with Claimant Representative Groups to take their views into account”.

The other references to CRGs in which DPAC has been identified by name as being included, deal with the future level of engagement that Atos will have with CRGs in order to take the needs and wishes of disabled people into account. Successful engagement with CRGs was an important criterion in this tender, as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) made clear in August when it stated that successful PIP assessment bids had “demonstrated strong evidence… of close working with disabled people’s representative groups”.

 DPAC has been shocked to learn that its name (and the names of other CRGs mentioned in the tender which have also protested) has been used to lend credibility to Atos’ claim of future successful engagement with these organisations, on which depends, according to DWP, the successful implementation of assessments responsive to needs of disabled people.  DPAC has staged protests against Atos, in particular during the Paralympics games, and has repeatedly denounced Atos’ treatment of disabled people and the computer based assessments leading to so many wrong outcomes.  DPAC does not wish to be associated with Atos in any way, shape or form, and DPAC’s brand has been compromised by this false association.

 DPAC believes that if one excludes CRGs named in the tender which have never been consulted by Atos, which have never had and never intended to have any engagement with Atos, and which have expressed their dismay at the possibility of engaging with what they see as a flawed process, Atos’s claim in this area is not only weak, but also mendacious. 

 We feel it is essential for these assessments that those employed using taxpayers money to carry them out are not awarded the contracts based on the use of false information and we would like the Public Accounts Committee to investigate these matters further.

 Linda Burnip

Co-founder DPAC on behalf of all DPAC members.

 

The real WCA figures after appeal- 76% entitled to support!

 All Posts, Atos, Benefits, Disability Rights, media, Welfare reforms  2 Responses »
Nov 102012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

Seventy- six percent of those going through the WCA were entitled to ESA support after appeal figures were taken into account. This obviously does not include who did not have the energy to go through yet another appeal, or those included in the 73 deaths and suicides per week happening as a result of the WCA regime. We expect the percentage would be even higher without the misery and death surrounding this constantly criticised regime imposed by the Government of millionaires. We ask when the media will start producing the correct after appeal figures and we call on MPs to take these into account and help smash the myths around this process which still leaves disabled people without income, suicidal, dead and on the verge of homelessness. If this was happening in any other country this Government would denounce it and call for an urgent inquiry – why are disabled people in the UK still enduring this process?

The real results!

What the DWP don’t want
you to know

The following percentages reflect the monthly figures for claimants who were awarded their Employment & Support Allowance upon ‘conversion’ from Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance and Incapacity ‘credits’ for incapacity. They are taken from the data table sets released by the DWP on the 6th November 2012 (see above) relating to the first statistical release of figures since the National roll out of the reassessment programme after the Aberdeen & Burnley pilots conducted from October 2010.

These figures are a far cry from the grossly distorted media headlines
depicting ‘75% of incapacity claimants as faking their illnesses’

They also raise concern over claims made by the DWP Press Office yesterday that the numbers being declared entitled to their benefits after reassessment was 64%. Their figure of 64% was arrived at by averaging the 3 months from December 2011 – February 2012, you can see from the figures below that they chose the three months which provided them with the lowest award percentages.

The DWP will of course know how these figures will increase even further once statistical information is added for appeals dealt with by Tribunals which have yet to be confirmed by statistical data releases from Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS). The figures are adjusted to take account of appeals; some of which will be resolved by the DWP at the reconsideration stage whereas others will be subject to appeals to tribunals for which the data has yet to be added.

Below are figures for claimants who previously claimed incapacity benefits but were then placed in either the ‘Work Related Activity’ or ‘Support’ Groups in Employment & Support Allowance once their awards had been converted – they make interesting reading:


* 76% – Mar-11

* 71% – Apr-11

* 67% – May-11

* 66% – Jun-11

* 69% – Jul-11

* 68% – Aug-11

* 67% – Sep-11

* 67% – Oct-11

* 66% – Nov-11

* 64% – Dec-11

* 64% – Jan-12

* 65% – Feb-12

Will the media now apologise for their

“75% faking it” claims?

The figures were compiled by Nick at My Legal. You can read more at

https://mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=frontline&thread=789&page=1#2325#ixzz2BmJ8ZN2G

 DPAC are once again grateful to Nick for allowing us to share this and urge you to support him at https://mylegal.proboards.com/index.cgi

 
   

 

DISABLED PROTESTOR TO STAGE VIGIL & HUNGER STRIKE OUTSIDE OF ATOS OFFICES IN CARDIFF

 Action, All Posts, Atos, Welfare reforms  12 Responses »
Nov 042012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

DISABLED PEOPLE AGAINST CUTS (DPAC) CAERDYDD PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE ISSUE
CONTACT – Disabled People Against Cuts Caerdydd, 07855510534
 
STARTS
A disabled person in his 30s will lead a five day hunger strike and vigil outside the ATOS office on St Agnes Road, Gabalfa, Cardiff to protest a letter from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) declaring him fit for work and cutting his benefits.
Christos Palmer, who has both mental and physical health problems, including depression, self-harm and mobility issues, hopes the protest will highlight the suffering of disabled people caused by current government policies.
 
ATOS, the French IT company that carries out the controversial Work Capability Assessments for the DWP has been the subject of widespread condemnation from disability charities and the British Medical Assocation who call for the assesments to be scrapped completely. The firm has been accused of target chasing for cutting the amount of people found eligible for benefits.

Rob Marsh, a protest spokesperson said,
 
“Earlier this year a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary revealed the DWP requires ATOS to reject the benefit claims of 7 out of 8 disabled claimants, resulting in immense suffering, homelessness, or death. The mark of a civilised society is how it addresses the needs of its most vulnerable members. Given what is happening to tens of thousands of disabled people in Britain today, we can no longer claim to be a civilized society.

Our campaign is part of a national campaign that goes by the name “Atos Kills”. This is based on well-documented evidence that approximately 32 disabled people a week died last year after their Atos Work Capability Assessments deemed them “fit to work” and stopped benefits. This year the figure has  risen to 73 deaths per week including suicides”
 
A spokesperson from Disabled People Against Cuts in Cardiff 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”
 
The protest begins on Monday at 8 am and end on Friday afternoon.
ENDS
 
NOTES FOR JOURNALISTS
 
Press are suggested to attend at 12 noon on Monday.
Rob Marsh, Disabled People Against Cuts Caerdydd Spokesperson – 07855510534

The peaceful week long vigil against Atos outside their Gabalfa offices on St. Agnes Road aims to start every day starting at 8am and finishing roughly at 4pm at earliest, from Monday 5 – Friday 9 November, times will vary depending on the weather and other factors. Christos aims to be on hunger strike throughout the protest, supporters are strongly trying to persuade him not to go on hunger strike.
 
Christos Palmer, a former IT technician has been medically diagnosed with both mental and physical health problems, including depression, self-harm and mobility issues.  He has asked that Rob Marsh of Disabled People Against Cuts Caerdydd to be a press spokesperson for the protest
 
According to an FOI (Freedom of Information) response publicised by the Daily Mail journalist Sonia Poulton on October 7, the current weekly average Atos/DWP death toll of people found fit for work after an ESA work capability assessment now stands at 73 people per week.
 
A FOI in April revealed in 2011 an average of 32 dying a week after failing test for new incapacity benefit. More than a thousand ­sickness benefit claimants died last year after being told to get a job.
https://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html
 
There have been numerous horror stories in the media of people with terminal illnesses (in one infamous case even someone in a coma) being declared fit for work by ATOS and having their benefits cut.
 
Recent Stories:
‘A GRIEVING boy of 13 has accused Atos of killing his disabled dad. Kieran McArdle told the Daily Record in a harrowing letter how his father Brian, 57, collapsed and died the day after his disability benefits were stopped. He had been assessed by Atos and deemed “fit for work”’
https://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/11/01/atos-benefits-bullies-killed-my-sick-dad-says-devastated-kieran-mcardle-13/
 
‘A cancer sufferer, who had her benefits cut by government officials who said she was fit to work, has died’.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19433535
 
‘I sought this debate in order to raise the case of one of my constituents, Colin Traynor, who was epileptic. He was assessed as fit for work, yet died less than four months later’ (Michael Meacher MP)
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2012-09-13a.532.0
 
Website documenting many of the deaths caused by government welfare reform
https://calumslist.org/

DPAC want to make it very clear that we do not recommend hunger strikes nor do we agree with them. We respect Christos’ choice and understand his reasons, but would be happier with a different method of protest. However, we support Christos’ aims and those of fellow protesters at the Cardiff Vigil.

Joint Statement on Work Capability Assessment (WCA) by DPAC and Black Triangle

 All Posts, Atos, Disability Rights, Independent Living, Independent Living Fund ILF, News, Social Model, Welfare reforms  10 Responses »
Oct 302012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

We do not believe that any individual or group who claims to represent the disabled people’s protest movement should engage with DWP/Atos/Capita without insisting upon an end to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) with immediate effect as a prerequisite to any discussion.

 We regard any such engagement with DWP/Atos /Capita without this insistence on the above as a prerequisite to be nothing less than collusion in policies and systems that have been irrefutably shown to be harmful and, in many cases, lethal to the sick and/or disabled person being ‘assessed’.

 The WCA has no empirical, scientific medical evidence-base and the process has never been risk assessed.

 There remains no feedback or reporting mechanism.

 The discharge of both a statutory and ethical duty of care – owed by professionals, citizens and public authorities – to others in a vulnerable situation depends upon the existence of a reporting mechanism whereby any potential or actual risk to the life and well-being of a patient or to those around them may be reported and adequately addressed.

 This is precisely why the entire British medical profession has demanded that WCA end ‘with immediate effect to be replaced by a rigorous and safe system whereby avoidable harm’ may be prevented.

 That the General Medical Council (GMC) continues to accredit Atos assessment centres with ‘approved medical environment’ status is an utter disgrace.

 The Work Capability Assessment has caused death, suicide, homelessness, and left people without income dependent on family and friends. The WCA also causes an increase in mental health issues and a worsening of impairments. The latest figures show 73 deaths and suicides per week amongst those subject to this brutal process.

 The WCA is based on the discredited UNUM manufactured bio-psychosocial model. The   Centre for Psychosocial & Disability Research at Cardiff University literature has provided the academic foundation for the increasingly notorious WCA administered by Atos Healthcare in the UK, and without it is unlikely that the WCA would exist in its present form. The volume of incriminating evidence against the WCA has grown phenomenally, as people with serious, incapacitating illnesses continue to be found ‘fit for work’.

 When Freud set out his vision of welfare reform for disabled people he used a number of references to back up the plans for reforms.  No less than 170 of these references came from a group of academics based at or connected to the Cardiff University Department:. This centre originally led by ex Chief medical Officer at the Department for Work and Pensions Sir Mansel Alyward was funded by Unum to the tune of 1.6 million pounds from 2004 to 2009 to add academic credibility to the bio-psychosocial model: a model used by Atos to identify that if someone can press a button they are ‘fit for work’ and ineligible for any disability support.

 The connection between the WCA and the Cardiff Centre are only too obvious. The latter seeks to locate the source of incapacity in the individual’s psyche/attitude, promoting a form of ‘positive thinking’ as being curative, while the WCA claims to focus on what sick/disabled people can do as an argument that they have even the merest work capacity. But there is a more important connection. The Centre’s funder, Unum Insurance, employed tactics of ‘disability denial’ in the U.S. to avoid paying out on legitimate health claims. And since founding the CPDR Unum have sought to promote their ‘Income Protection’ product, marketing it upon the fact that the British public can no longer rely upon the state to support them if they become sick or disabled. Are we really to believe this is a coincidence?

 For more see: https://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/09/14/private-firms-role-in-creation-of-disability-assessment-regime-black-triangles-letter-published-in-the-guardian/

 DPAC and BT want to state categorically:

 1. We reject all ideas that ‘tinkering’ with WCA descriptors will serve any positive purpose. We call for the complete removal of the WCA with immediate effect and we have remained unwavering and constant on that position.

 2. We reject the bio-psychosocial model as having any purpose but to cut state support and replace it with private insurance and other company profits.

 3.We work from the social model philosophy and this means a pan impairment approach with no hierarchy of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ groups or individuals; this is in complete contrast to this government, or any set of groups intent on taking us back to medical model terminologies or helpless victim approaches

 4. We will work with any group who we believe genuinely opposes the government’s attacks on disabled people. However we are seriously concerned with those organisations who believe that they can work with the government to lessen the effects of these attacks. We believe that there is no alternative to outright opposition to the government if we are to stop the impoverishment and destruction of the lives of millions of disabled people in the UK. We are particularly disturbed that some of the large disability charities seem willing to work with the government effectively giving cover to their attacks on disabled people. We call on all disability charities and other groups to immediately withdraw from any work that lends credibility to the government’s so called welfare reforms.

 5. We do not support in any shape or form what this government is doing to disabled people: we classify disabled people as those who have to endure the negative attitudes of others, and those disabled by the ways this so called society treats us as less deserving than non-disabled people. We support an assessment that truely establishes a person’s ability to assess their capability to work, not based on a tick box approach.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week long Vigil Outside Atos: Cardiff 5th Nov to 9th Nov

 Action, All Posts, Atos, Welfare reforms  2 Responses »
Oct 292012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net
  Action in Cardiff: We intend to hold a week long vigil against Atos outside their Gabalfa offices on St. Agnes Road, this is every day starting at 8am and finishing at 6pm, from Monday the 5th of November to Friday the 9th, it’ll be quite boring, no road blocking just sitting in chairs on the pavement with placards. We need someone to print out water proof placards, and possible some leaflets, any help on this is greatly appreciated. Bring water proof clothing, brolleys, warm clothing, a blanket, and maybe a towel, cameras to take pictures and video the event, something warm to drink (coffee or tea in flasks), and your own food, bring a book to read, and some music to listen to, we need legal observers to overseer the event and someone to notify the various press agencies, TV channels, Radio stations, (BBC, ITV, Ch4, Nation Radio, BBC Radio Wales, etc). Anyone who can turn up, even for an hour, please do.

 See: https://www.facebook.com/events/430345053681756/ for more details

 

 

our October 20th DPAC brings London to Standstill Again

 Action, All Posts, Atos, Benefits, Disability Rights, Events, media, News, Politics, Welfare reforms  4 Responses »
Oct 212012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nILPstGiigI&feature=share 

https://bambuser.com/v/3077474
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fYbqtrhBuU 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS646g6yqfk&feature=youtu.be 

https://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/10/21/video-tuc-a-future-that-works-marble-arch-and-park-lane-traffic-blockade-by-disabled-people/?utm_source 

https://www.itv.com/news/update/2012-10-20/disabled-protesters-bring-london-to-s-standstill/

https://libcom.org/blog/what-october-20-tells-us-about-state-movement-21102012 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4778642389217.191551.1390352675&type=1 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/david-cameron-is-clueless-ed-miliband-joins-austerity-protesters-in-london-8219204.html 

https://soundcloud.com/mattieu-varnham/dpac-in-blockade-send-strong 

https://twitter.com/donnachadelong/status/259684038716030976/photo/1 

https://twitter.com/jamesvarnham/status/259664424112095233/photo/1 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/68488342@N02/8108048736/

 

https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/marching-is-not-enough-boycott-workfare-and-dpac-show-the-way/#comment-13305

 Posted by at 15:28

What ATOS didn’t want you to know from Johnny Void wordpress

 All Posts, Atos, Benefits, News, Welfare reforms  8 Responses »
Oct 182012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

Bungling DWP Publish Atos Corporate Secrets on Government Website!
Posted on October 18, 2012 by johnny void

Bungling DWP officials have published the Atos tender document for the new Personal Independence Payment and given away reams of highly confidential commercial information in the process.

The documents contain pages of technical information about Atos’ internal systems, financial information and even the names of people who will be involved in managing the new PIP benefit assessments. Other documents reveal how Capita will be involved in the assessments.

Atos, who notoriously carry out the Work Capability Assessment for those on out of work sickness and disability benefits, have been given the contract to manage the assessments for PIP. These assessments will be based on the same crude computer based tests as the WCA and are to be used to re-assess disabled people currently claiming Disability Living Allowance. The stated aim is to strip benefits from 20% of disabled people.

Astonishingly Atos claim in their tender that they have a “successful record of engagement with Claimant Representative Groups”, including direct action campaign group Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC). In truth DPAC have been behind many of the protests held outside Atos’ offices including the recent well attended protest at their London headquarters which was followed by an occupation of the DWP.

DPAC are seeking legal advice on challenging Atos’ lie in their tender for the lucrative PIP contract.

The documents can be found at: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/business-papers/commons/deposited-papers/?page=4#toggle-1399

Scroll down to DEP2012-1399 and then click all files.

Already the documents have been widely distributed to disability and welfare claimants and details from the tender are beginning to emerge – such as the fact Atos are planning PIP assessments on the cheap by only hiring 1 doctor for every 50 physiotherapists.

Many parts of the documents are redacted, meaning some information is blacked out. Unfortunately the DWP – currently tasked with building the most complex IT system ever designed in the world to handle the change to the new Universal Credit benefits system – don’t appear to know much about computers.

To read the redacted text all that needs to be done is to simply convert the PDF files to a text file. This can be bodged simply by opening the file as a PDF, then go to Edit – Select All – Copy and then pasting the text into notepad. (Some of the tables in the documents have redacted information which cannot be viewed in this way. It may be possible to extract this info by other means, I don’t know, any ideas please mention in the comments)

Whilst it is not uncommon for tender documents to be released, many details, such as personal names and specific technical or financial information, are redacted under Freedom of Information laws relating to privacy and commercial confidentiality.

Not so at the Department of Work and Pensions where this information has been left lying around on the internet for anyone to access. DWP contractors should take note. Whilst the inept clown Iain Duncan Smith is in charge, your dirty little secrets are not safe at the DWP.

It is possible these documents may disappear offline very soon or even be redacted properly. Download them now whilst you still can.

The main tender documents are:

Atos Bid/Tender Documents For PIP Assessments London & South of England

https://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2012-1399/Atos_ITT_Doc4Part5_TenderForm_Lot1.pdf

https://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2012-1399/Atos_Doc4Part6Annex2_Lot3.pdf

Atos Tender/Bid Documents for PIP Assessments Scotland & North of England

https://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2012-1399/A-Atos_Doc4Part5_TenderForm_Lot3.pdf

https://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2012-1399/AtosITServicesUKLtd_Doc4Part6Annex2_Lot1.pdf

 Posted by at 16:00

Lies, Damn Lies, ATOS and DWP

 Action, All Posts, Atos, Benefits, Disability Rights, Welfare reforms  10 Responses »
Oct 172012
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

DPAC want to make it very clear that we  are not and will never be involved with Atos except as challengers to their process which leaves 73 people per week dead through taking their own lives or through being disabled /ill and which leaves other without income. Nor do we support either Atos or Capita contracts for carrying out PIP assessments.

DPAC are seeking legal advice and will be challenging ATOS claims in their PIP tender that they have consulted with us about PIP. Of course maybe they mean they read our leaflets when we’ve been protesting around the country both inside and outside their offices. Maybe their CEO has been suffering from hallucinations.

Also we have not been involved in any meaningful dialogue with DWP over the Independent Living Fund’s future.

This is what ATOS said untruthfully in their tender

Atos has a successful record of engagement with Claimant Representative Groups (CRG), Special Interest and Pressure Groups who represent claimants affected by sickness and/or disability, and we have experience and understanding of the challenges and opportunities that this presents. We make sure that we have clear objectives, and a solid understanding of the engagement intent and messaging. 

CRGs are important both as representative groups of claimants with
expertise on specific disability issues and as the first port of call
for claimant concerns with service delivery. Establishing relationships based on honesty and trust will help Atos and the Authority to improve overall understanding of PIP across a wide range of groups, and will feed into continuous service improvement. 

We engage with 

  • Citizens Advice, 
  • Mencap,
  • MIND, 
  • Disability Rights UK, 
  • Macmillan Cancer Support, 
  • SENSE, 
  • Rethink, 
  • RNIB, 
  • DPAC,
  • Northern Ireland Association for Mental Health, 
  • National Autistic Society and 
  • the Scottish Association of Mental Health

amongst others at a national level and regularly meet with
representatives at a local level to explain our role and discuss their
concerns. We currently have a database of more than 300 local CRGs for outbound communications.

=========================================

There is also this from paragraph 7 on page 31

We currently pro-actively monitor websites and social media using the
expertise of our suppliers Big Mouth Media for mentions of Atos and
disability assessments, and we will extend this during PIP. These
on-line services are an opportunity for local and national engagement
with the Atos team, and for the general public to draw areas of concern
to our attention. 

 

 Posted by at 15:03
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