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Dispatches & Panorama programmes on ATOS disability assessments (30/7)

BigTom

BigTom

Well-Known Member
There are two programmes on tonight about the ATOS disability assessment process, which it would be really good to publicise, especially the channel 4 dispatches one, which has a doctor going undercover to find out about the process, this is on at 8pm tonight, and has led to the story about ATOS targets to find 89% of people fit for work:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jul/27/disability-benefit-assessors-film?CMP=twt_fd

Secret filming of training given to doctors recruited by the private company Atos to assess whether sickness and disability benefit applicants are fit for work suggests that staff are monitored to ensure they do not find excessive numbers of claimants eligible.
...
The trainer tells trainee assessors: "If it's more than I think 12% or 13%, you will be fed back 'your rate is too high.'" When Bick questioned how the company could know in advance the precise proportion of people who needed to be put in this category, the trainer replied: "How do we know? I don't know who set the criteria but that's what we are being told."

Bick asked: "So if we put 20% in, we would get picked up on?". He was told by the trainer that, in that scenario, his cases would be reviewed.
Click to expand...


http://benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/q-when-is-target-not-target-when-its.html

is a really good, balanced article discussing the targets.

then at 8:30pm, Panorama has a program about the same - not sure about this, the title is dodgy and the BBC don't have a great record when it comes to disability stuff but this telegraph article suggests at least it will highlight the injustice of it with a story about a man with a heart condtion found fit for work having been advised by his assessor to seek urgent medical advice, who died from a heart attack five weeks later

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...s-sending-sick-and-disabled-back-to-work.html

Despite the assessor telling Mr Hill to seek urgent medical advice, he was still found fit for work. In the meantime doctors had diagnosed him with heart failure.

He won his appeal but he was ordered to attend another assessment.

"He got a letter for another medical and I couldn't believe it," said Mrs Hill. "He'd got to go for a medical when he was waiting for a heart operation."

But he was again declared fit for work, with the assessor declaring: "Significant disability due to cardiovascular problems seems unlikely."

Mr Hill died of a heart attack five weeks later.
Click to expand...

I think it's important that people who have not experienced or heard about this process, or who do not understand that it is such a failure, should see the dispatches program, and possibly the panorama one, though I might regret saying that later tonight.
I'm sure there will be discussion here about them both, probably over a couple of threads..
 
'Neil Bateman, a Welfare Rights Advisor says that his success rate for appeals is much higher and that the system is badly flawed:
“I think I’ve won all of the appeals so far. 80-90% with experienced advisers is quite common, which is ridiculous that we’re getting such a fantastic success rate. The way they gather the evidence and the quality of the decision-making is badly wrong.” '

from Panorama

maybe even the Panorama one will be a bit more balanced, unlike usual BBC output on benefits, etc..

in fact, it has to be, the abuses/failures/corruption is now too widespread, well known, etc to be ignored..
 
'Todays newspapers are once again hitting the lazy scrounger rhetoric as hard as they can with The Fail, Express and Sun all vying for the most despicable articles.

The mail:
Off sick for a decade... with acne or a cough! The astonishing cases among 885,000 benefit claimants

The Express:
SLICKNESS BENEFIT CULTURE THAT BLEEDS COUNTRY DRY

The Sun:
Disability benefits treble in 20yrs. Annual bill is £13bn. And this is how many claim: 3,226,790 '



reposting what you put up, i don't think it is a co-incidence that the tabloids and the DWP have launched a media offensive before the programmes, in fact its so fucking transparent...
 
This is what was placed on the DWP intranet this morning in regards to the programme.....

Media coverage about Employment and Support Allowance and Work Capability Assessments.

Two television programmes will be shown today (30 July) about Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Work Capability Assessments (WCA). The programmes are Panorama at 8.30pm on BBC Two, and Dispatches at 8pm on Channel 4.
It is expected that the programmes will cover:
  • Whether ESA and WCA assessments are suitable for claimants
  • Issues in the WCA process, its implementation costs, the appeals system against benefit decisions and the overall impact on vulnerable people
  • The robustness of the decision-making process and challenges about performance of Atos and healthcare professionals.
Dispatches is expected to include undercover footage of the Atos training process and allegations that targets are set for numbers of claimants being assessed as incapable of work.
DWP has not been given access to the film or a transcript, so has not been able to verify the allegations being made or establish whether they have been taken out of context. Complaints about this have been registered with the producers and Channel 4.
DWP’s Press Office has been leading on forming a strong rebuttal to the allegations. This includes strongly making clear that there are no targets involved for numbers of claimants being assessed as being incapable of work.
A statement has been provided to Dispatches expressing our concerns, while Employment Minister Chris Grayling has recorded an interview for Panorama.
Chris Grayling said: “Reforming incapacity benefits is all about saving lives by preventing people from being written off to a life on benefits.
“There is strong evidence that work is good for you. Through the Work Programme we are giving people more support than ever before to help them find a job, while giving unconditional financial support to those who are not well enough to work.
"We know that it is a difficult process, and we won't get every decision right, but we have worked incredibly hard to continuously improve the process and will continue to do so. It is extremely disappointing that these programmes do not seem willing to offer a balanced view.”
Click to expand...
 
treelover said:
'Todays newspapers are once again hitting the lazy scrounger rhetoric as hard as they can with The Fail, Express and Sun all vying for the most despicable articles.

The mail:
Off sick for a decade... with acne or a cough! The astonishing cases among 885,000 benefit claimants

The Express:
SLICKNESS BENEFIT CULTURE THAT BLEEDS COUNTRY DRY

The Sun:
Disability benefits treble in 20yrs. Annual bill is £13bn. And this is how many claim: 3,226,790

reposting what you put up, i don't think it is a co-incidence that the tabloids and the DWP have launched a media offensive before the programme...
Click to expand...

Maybe it'll backfire? Maybe so many people will want to see these scroungers under examination, they'll watch the programme? (They'll probably watch the BBC one though)
 
"We know that it is a difficult process, and we won't get every decision right, but we have worked incredibly hard to continuously improve the process and will continue to do so. It is extremely disappointing that these programmes do not seem willing to offer a balanced view.”

The cheek, these will (hopefully) be the first programmes to do so!
 
Now it's a WAR in the fucking Express..!!

BRITAIN’S benefits system faces a fresh blitz after figures reveal nearly 900,000 people have claimed sickness handouts for more than a decade.
Taxpayers shelled out around £4billion last year alone to long-term benefit claimants for a vast number of ailments, the new statistics show.
They also reveal a catalogue of dubious cases – including 20,000 alcoholics and drug addicts who pocket handouts costing £100million a year.
Employment Minister Chris Grayling said the statistics underlined why drastic action is needed to make sure funds only go to those who have genuine health reasons for not working. The sick pay system has been blamed for keeping millions of families mired in benefit dependency.
Mr Grayling said: “These figures show the scale of the problem and the ludicrous situation that used to exist and why we are right to reform the system.”
The statistics, based by the Department for Work and Pensions on data from November 2011, show that 885,100 people – 34 per cent of the 2.6 million who live on the state “sick note” payments – have been doing so for at least a decade.
These figures show that there is plenty more fat to be trimmed out of the benefits budget
John O’Connell, research director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance
More than 1,000 people have been raking in handouts for headaches – at a cost of £5million a year. Some 690 people had been claiming handouts for obesity problems for at least 10 years, costing £3.3million in one year alone. And 20 people have been signed off for “coughs” at a cost of £100,000 last year.
The shocking Whitehall statistics will intensify anger at Britain’s spiralling welfare bill.
Last night John O’Connell, research director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “These figures show that there is plenty more fat to be trimmed out of the benefits budget. It’s crucial that the Government gets control of claims. The welfare system needs drastic reform.”
 
when will Levinson look at how issues around disabled people/benefits is covered by the Tabloids, its out of control, lies, smears, mis-information...

An example, 'headaches' will mean migraines, etc which can be devastating and very very severe...
 
'There are two main areas of concern: unease about the government policy of retesting people's fitness for work, and alarm about practical hitches in the testing process delivered by Atos. Kate Green, a Labour MP who sits on the committee, said that while she was broadly supportive of the policy to help more people back into work, "the delivery has been absolutely disastrous".'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/24/atos-faces-critical-report-by-mps?intcmp=239



Of course, just read between the lines here, its obvious...
 
vile-atos-get-lucrative-games-contracts

imgres
imgres
 
Reviewer of fitness-to-work benefit tests to stand down



The man in charge of reviewing the government's controversial fitness-to-work benefit assessments is to stand down, the BBC's Panorama has learned.
Professor Malcolm Harrington has called for a big overhaul of the process of testing claimants' ability to work to make it more "fair and humane".
He said ministers wanted a "fresh set of eyes" - but denied this was because of changes he had asked for.
Officials said he had only been recruited for a limited period.
Click to expand...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19046447
 
treelover said:
"We know that it is a difficult process, and we won't get every decision right, but we have worked incredibly hard to continuously improve the process and will continue to do so. It is extremely disappointing that these programmes do not seem willing to offer a balanced view.”

The cheek, these will (hopefully) be the first programmes to do so!
Click to expand...

and in the meantime, let's feed the press loads of dubious figures just so nobody believes the programmes
 
Frankie Jack said:
Now it's a WAR in the fucking Express..!!

BRITAIN’S benefits system faces a fresh blitz after figures reveal nearly 900,000 people have claimed sickness handouts for more than a decade.
Taxpayers shelled out around £4billion last year alone to long-term benefit claimants for a vast number of ailments, the new statistics show.
They also reveal a catalogue of dubious cases – including 20,000 alcoholics and drug addicts who pocket handouts costing £100million a year.
Employment Minister Chris Grayling said the statistics underlined why drastic action is needed to make sure funds only go to those who have genuine health reasons for not working. The sick pay system has been blamed for keeping millions of families mired in benefit dependency.
Mr Grayling said: “These figures show the scale of the problem and the ludicrous situation that used to exist and why we are right to reform the system.”
The statistics, based by the Department for Work and Pensions on data from November 2011, show that 885,100 people – 34 per cent of the 2.6 million who live on the state “sick note” payments – have been doing so for at least a decade.
These figures show that there is plenty more fat to be trimmed out of the benefits budget
John O’Connell, research director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance
More than 1,000 people have been raking in handouts for headaches – at a cost of £5million a year. Some 690 people had been claiming handouts for obesity problems for at least 10 years, costing £3.3million in one year alone. And 20 people have been signed off for “coughs” at a cost of £100,000 last year.
The shocking Whitehall statistics will intensify anger at Britain’s spiralling welfare bill.
Last night John O’Connell, research director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “These figures show that there is plenty more fat to be trimmed out of the benefits budget. It’s crucial that the Government gets control of claims. The welfare system needs drastic reform.”
Click to expand...

Fucking idiots cherry-picking and misrepresenting data.
Those people with headaches? Almost all are people who suffer from vascular headaches such as migraine, or from cluster headaches, both of which put the majority of sufferers in so much pain and/or an altered state of consciousness that they're unable to function normally.
What the fuck the Tax-avoider's Alliance has to do with this except for being pally with Richard shitcunt Desmond, who also enjoys "minimising his taxation", I haven't got a fucking clue.

Fucking kill them all, the shit-eating lying fuckpigs. :mad:
 
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