ATOS

[Grandma Death]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19433535

This case is the tip of the iceberg.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 82036.html

I find this vomit inducing that this government cut the rate of income tax by 5p thus handing wealthy people millions of pounds whilst at the same time employing the french firm ATOS (who ironically are one of the sponsors of the paralympics) to solely aim to get people off disability-the fact that 40% cases of appealed are winning is indicative of how ruthless ATOS and their agenda is.

Fact is the lowest levels of benefit fraud are amongst those claiming disability-they are so low they are in fact neglible. Yet some of our most vulnerable people in society are being put through a dehumanising process and its resulting in people dying.

Clearly we arent in this together-and in fact (according to Camerons own words) the tories are in fact 'inhuman' for their attacks on welfare.

[Boris Johnson]

Outsourcing it to a private company was a terrible idea. Though it would have been more costly, something like trying to tempt retired doctors back into a new DoSS/NHS service to do it would have been better, simply because as a social health issue. ATOS were simply given targets and autonomy, from what it looks like there assessment system is completely rigged. No doubt what so ever, there are dozens and dozens of people who are having legitimate claims refused.

The problem however remains, there are fake claimants. Quite a lot, before all the public outrage and exposes about legitimate claims being denied, there was the exact inverse. There in the old system, was no medical oversight for the possibility of improvement and the criteria for being completely unable to work were far too simplistic and liberal.

Nor is this simply a case of people cheating the system, people with certain long term and unpleasant illnesses normally muscular or chronic pain related, but not completely debilitating. In effect dropped out of society being completely removed from the workforce, in effect by the old system.

So something needed doing with old system. The current approach though comes dangerously close to chucking extremely vulnerable people on their asses in large numbers. Nor can I see it as being sustainable.

[Grandma Death]

The levels of fraud are so low there is no justification to approach the problem in this manner. People are literally dying because of this governments ideological crusade. In Cameron's own words it's 'inhumane'

[Sparse1]

ATOS were given the contract by Labour and were exactly the same under them so attacking the current government for it is factually incorrect.

The fraud argument doesn't really stand up because ultimately fraudsters are fraudsters and as such are rather good at lying so are not going to be caught out by a cursory medical and a conversation with a doctor.

The reason why the disability/incapacity budget ends up being so high is because there are a lot of people with curable conditions (back pain for example can in many cases be dramatically improved by physiotherapy) who would be capable of working if they were given effective treatment. Given that most of those who go to independent tribunal will be entitled to legal aid any wrong decisions end up costing the taxpayer a fortune on top of what the company themselves are paid in the first place, so it would be cheaper all round - and I'm sure most people would prefer it - if claimants instead of being sent for a medical were sent to a hospital who were then told to try and fix them.

[Boris Johnson]

[Showboat]

The 'low levels of fraud' argument doesn't cut it because successful fraud, by its very nature, is un-quantifiable. However, disability benefit is the one benefit I can't take a big problem with. Unless we get hit by a bus or something we are all going to get old and/or sick sometime and will need care. It would be better if the government stopped robbing us blind and squandering the proceeds so that more people could afford better private healthcare but still some people are gonna need help and for all my libertarian principles I don't want to see people being left to die. (I witnessed it first hand in a grim Manila hospital when my ex g/f dad died after a stroke - after that I swore never to slag off the NHS again.... they were like "These are the drugs he needs, you need to go and buy them" and "He needs a tube to be fed, you can buy one in the medical stores over the road"... then... "This is how YOU feed him using the tube"... no aircon, 35 deg C, fan broken, didn't allow us to bring our own fan in. It was like something out of the Crimean war. I can't blame the nurses; they were just so overworked. )

It's really sad to read about the woman with cancer she put in to the system all her life and was then screwed by it at the end; but that's the system... it takes and takes and squanders and then screws you over when you need it. MP flip homes, have moats cleaned, or simply get money for mortgages that don't exist while cancer sufferers (who have always paid in as opposed to the MPs who just take out) can't be given 30 quid a week. Disgusting.

It's really difficult to sort out... we have to stop any frauds, if people are disabled and can work then we have to do something about that too. Being in a wheelchair doesn't necessarily mean you can't do any work, so what do you do about a genuinely wheelchair bound person who could work behind a desk but is out of work? Treat them as being unable to work or as unemployed... not forgetting then even though the discrimination laws exist disabled people are still gonna be discriminated against which makes the job of finding the limited work they can do all the more difficult. It's a real toughy. That said this ATOS and their 'points' system sounds totally disgusting.

[Grandma Death]

[Grandma Death]

[lil bit]

[Clarino]

Allowing more people the chance to defraud the system...