A case of: 'A job, a job, my kingdom for a job?'

“This all proves only one point.....if you want to make a mint for doing f*** all and for doing it extremely badly, make friends with the ruling elite and see if you can get a cushy little contract by slipping them a little brown envelope.”

“@oscardoodle, you should also include "Yes Minister" in your television viewing lists. I would not hold any particular government responsible for these so called "ability assessments", both the coalition and the previous government are guilty of following the advice of civil servants who have their own agenda.

Atos was brought in by the previous Labour government as a target driven initiative, the coalition could have ended the contract, instead they are trying to drive up the target figures by declaring more people fit for work, in some cases this has included people who have actually died from their health problems.

Dovyou remember the case from a few years ago when HMRC were trying to find Samual Pepys due to him not paying tax on the publication of his diary? When the HMRC were informed that Pepys was dead, they apologised and asked when did he die, and offered condolences to his family.”

“Quite so, Derby_born. I was with my partner when she went for her initial assessment, and frankly it was a bit like applying for a passport, but with a couple of minutes lying down. I had the feeling that
(a) If the AH staff member had not got a questionnaire to work with, she'd have floundered, since she could not quantify or elaborate and provide extra data from my partner's responses, since she was box ticking, and
(b) as most of us have experienced some form of clinical assessment during our lives, I got the impression that the whole affair was a charade. As of now, I still believe it is.
I can reinforce this assumption since twelve months ago my partner rang NHS direct for me one night when I was in agony, answered a few questions on my behalf and was told a nurse would be with me the following morning. So we called for an ambulance. Good job- I'd probably have been dead the following morning.
So much for box ticking, eh?
I watched 'carry on Doctor' last month- I currently have more faith in them than the current NHS.”

“Some facts about Atos which was contracted by the previous Labour government to carry out
Work Capability Asessments. This is an extract from the Atos Healthcare debate of Jan 17th 2013.

"1. ATOS ORIGIN are an IT corporate giant with no previous experience in healthcare prior to being awarded the exclusive government contract for the 'medical assessment' of all recipients of long term sickness benefit, disability benefit and War Pensions - which is NOT a benefit.

2. The IT company formed ATOS ORIGIN MEDICAL SERVICES, more commonly known as ATOS HEALTHCARE (AH), and the exclusive government contract with AH costs the Treasury a minimum of £110million per annum."

3. The 'medical assessment' as conducted by AH is known as the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). The WCA, as introduced by the previous Labour government, consists of a formal face-to-face interview with an AH staff member to provide answers to a computer questionnaire at assessment centres across the UK.”

“Not an implausible possibility, Phil. My good lady has recently been through the mill, with knee replacements, a pulmonary thrombosis which almost killed her and various other problems. She was assessed by ATOS (short for A******S, I believe) and found fit for work, even though results of various scans and tests were still forthcoming. She recently went for her first job interview and assessment, at Bombardier, and was capable of doing the job. However, since because of her condition, she is on Morphine for pain management and so Bombardier have turned her down since she falls outside of their drug policies. So ATOS , not her GP or the Hospital consultants, think she is fit to work, she wants to work even in a limited capacity but can't, since she is on pain relief. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. She now feels worse than useless- she feels like one of those million little statistics, enabling the government to announce that they've reduced the benefit spongers and got the country going back on track. Cameron and your millionaire cabinet members and associates, I spurn you as I would spurn a rabid dog.”