The report that in just over 2 years up to February last year no less than 2,380 disabled claimants died within 2 weeks of being assessed as fit for work and then having their benefit either reduced or stopped altogether, is beyond shocking. It is arguably the most damning statistic yet of the sheer callousness and brutality of this government towards the most helpless victims in our society. But there are further profound issues behind this dreadful story. The most important issues are holding to account those who are responsible for this utter tragedy and even more important still, the power to stop this lethal policy in its tracks. On both there is at present a vacuum. Continue reading
Tagged with ATOS
Iain Duncan Smith demands as many disabled people work as able-bodied
As part of the government’s plan to extract £12bn from social security benefits, IDS has announced his latest target is “the disability employment gap”. According to analysis of official ONS figures, this represents the difference between the number of disabled people who are in employment (48%) and the figure for the general population (73%). The implication is that IDS expects the same proportion of disabled people to work as those who are able-bodied! Just what does he believe disability means? There is a long and aggravated Tory history behind this latest announcement, beginning with Thatcher’s attempt to conceal the true unemployment figures by switching applicants en masse to the category of disability and making them subject to incapacity benefit rather than unemployment benefit. Continue reading
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The political class won’t “reconnect” until markets are drastically reformed
‘Reconnecting’ is the buzz word for the political class. They all agree it’s necessary, but very few have any serious ideas about how it might be achieved, and through force of inertia they easily slip back into the old ways. What they don’t realise is that it’s more about their constituents feeling able to reconnect as it is for them.
At present, and it’s been true for a long time, ordinary people have been feeling they no longer have control over key aspects of their lives. If they believe they didn’t receive the healthcare they needed, they are unsure how to make their complaint effective. If they need a house, they don’t know how to get one. If they think there’s a significant problem at the local school, they’re uncertain how to get it dealt with if the head teacher is unsympathetic. If they’re angry that the big banks have shortchanged the country out of billions and should pay the price for it, who do they go to to make sure this happens when the governing party gets half its annual income from those same banks? Continue reading
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How did the disgraced Atos get a £184m disability assessment contract?
It is bizarre that the hated Atos, whose reputation was destroyed by its punitive mishandling of work capability assessments of the disabled, should be awarded a multi-million contract for the new personal independence payments across London and the south of England. In one sense it is not surprising because the Tories, having privatised major public services, is now over-dependent on a very small clique of semi-monopolistic private providers – largely G4S, Capita, Serco, A4E, and Atos. But there is another more sinister reason why Atos got this contract, and that is that they lied in their tender document. Continue reading
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Disability protesters target Atos benefit test centres
Disability campaigners laid siege to Atos assessment centres up and down the country today, in a bid to increase public pressure on the government to end what many see as a war against disabled people.
Union activists, Disabled People Against Cuts and Black Triangle targeted 144 assessment centres where people are told whether they are able to work and if they are still entitled to benefits. Continue reading
