Firestormm
Senior Member
- Messages
- 5,055
- Location
- Cornwall England
17th January 2013. Bear with me and I'll try and find some recording. It was shown live (almost 3 hours I understand) but it's not yet up on Democracy Live (and may never be I suppose). It was a Backbench Debate and all sides were delivering shocking stories from their respective constituents.
Some coverage:
Some coverage:
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/jan/17/atos-attack-emotional-commons-debate?INTCMP=SRCH
Atos comes under attack in emotional Commons debate
Private contractor criticised by MPs who say constituents judged fit to work died or became suicidal soon after assessments
The private contractor Atos, which administers the government's work capability assessments, has come under sustained criticism from MPs as they told stories of constituents who had died shortly after being ruled fit for work by the firm.
During a powerful Commons debate that united politicians from all parties, MPs gave emotional accounts of how very sick individuals had been incorrectly assessed and told to return to work. Some of them later died, they said, and MPs told of others who had killed themselves or become suicidal following such decisions.
Labour MP Michael Meacher described the death of a young man with epilepsy shortly after he was classified fit for work and saw his benefit cut by £70 a week.
"He became agitated and depressed and lost weight, fearing that he could not pay his rent or buy food. Three months later, he had a major seizure that killed him," Meacher said. "A month after he died, the DWP [Department of Work and Pensions] rang his parents to say that it had made a mistake and his benefit was being restored."
The government's own figures revealed that 1,300 people had died after being told they should start preparing to go back to work, and another 2,200 had died before their assessment was complete, he said.
"Is it reasonable to pressurise seriously disabled persons into work so ruthlessly when there are 2.5 million unemployed and when, on average, eight persons chase every vacancy, unless they are provided with the active and extensive support they obviously need to get and hold down work, which is certainly not the case currently?" Meacher asked.
He reminded MPs that Atos was paid £110m a year to carry out the assessments for the DWP but and a further £60m of public money was being spent on administering appeals, because so many decisions were contested. The British Medical Association had described the assessments as "not fit for purpose", Meacher told the Commons.
Labour MP Steve Rotheram described a case he had heard about from a constituent, Janine, in Liverpool. "Her dad was thrown off sickness benefit in November after an Atos work capability assessment and was declared fit for work despite suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Six weeks later, on Christmas Day, Janine's father died," he said.
Conservative MP Heather Wheeler asked whether Atos reviewed the cases of those people who dropped "down dead within three months of being told they are fit for work". "At what point do we say that this isn't working?" she asked.
Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, condemned the "humiliating and demeaning" process which "makes sick people even sicker".
Labour's Pamela Nash said: "Nothing has shocked me more as an MP … than the sheer scale of anxiety and hardship caused by the flawed work capability assessments." She described seeing constituents developing mental health problems as a result of the stress the process caused.
Madeleine Moon, another Labour MP, said her constituency phones were often "clogged with crying people" distressed by the process. She described a constituent who was driven to attempt suicide by her experience of being assessed.
Conservative MP Jeremy Lefroy said Atos should be placed in the "last chance saloon" by the government.There was concern from Labour's Sheila Gilmour that 43% of people who were found fit for work were not working the following year and were not receiving benefits. "Where are they?" she asked.
Helen Goodman, a Labour MP, told of a district nurse who broke her back at work who was then found fit for work and a man who had been completely blind for 16 years and was forced to give up work but was told he must go back to work after an assessment.
Labour's Iain Wright described the distress of a female constituent with Crohn's disease who was told she could wear a nappy to work. "The government is treating my constituents like dirt," he said.
There was unease about the language that was increasingly used to describe benefit claimants, and one MP said claimants were "made to feel like they are on trial for benefit fraud at their assessments".
Most speakers agreed that it was sensible to have a system that made sure that those capable of work were helped into work. Stephen Timms, the shadow minister of state for employment, said: "The architecture of employment and support allowance is sound. The assessment system, however, is clearly not up to the load it is being asked to bear." The current system needed "fast and fundamental reform".
Mark Hoban, the employment minister, said considerable progress had been made in improving a process that was introduced by Labour. He said it was unhelpful to "demonise" the system with "adverse media coverage".
An Atos Healthcare spokeswoman said: "We know that this can be a difficult process for people and we do all we can to make sure the service we provide is as professional and compassionate as possible.
"[Our workers] strictly follow the guidelines given to them by the government when conducting assessments and make no decisions on a person's eligibility for benefits.
"We have worked with the department on improving the part of the process we carry out and continually ask for feedback from the department and those claiming benefit."
BBC Radio 4 Today in Parliament. Contains a brief summary with some coverage from the commons at around 8 minutes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pw3ls
Also an 'odd' call from Lady Mar - following that summary - for higher food prices to prevent food wastage?!
Sorry for long post. Sucks I knowHere's the Hansard Transcript of the debate: http://www.publications.parliament....130117/debtext/130117-0002.htm#13011761001546
And some mentioning of ME:
Stephen Gilbert
(...)
I am particularly concerned about those with fluctuating conditions such as ME-myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome - and those with lifelong degenerative conditions, who will never recover from the illness from which they are suffering but who continue to be called in for repeated assessments. The principle is the right one; the practice, however, is failing many millions of the most vulnerable people across the country. Although the coalition has made welcome efforts to get right a system that it inherited from the last Government, much more still needs to be done to ensure that we are doing things in a humane way.
Annette Brooke
Does my hon. Friend agree that most people were extremely pleased that Professor Harrington convened his working group to look at the descriptors for fluctuating conditions? However, whatever has happened has not solved the problem for people with ME, multiple sclerosis or mental health conditions. It is therefore imperative that the DWP get on with this and make the system work for those people.
Stephen Gilbert
I could not have put it better. This is not about the principle of assessments; it is about how they are conducted in practice. We owe it to some of the most vulnerable people across our country to ensure
that we get this right.
(...)
Annette Brooke
I would like to refer briefly to the issue of ME-myalgic encephalomyelitis. I understand that although the discussions on ME were very productive, the changes that we all want are not coming through individually. What we are looking for today is a means of unlocking some of the frictions that are causing the individual problems.
I am chair of the all-party parliamentary group on ME, so I have obviously received many representations on this matter. I would like to draw the Minister's attention to a survey on the work capability assessment carried out by the charity, Action for ME. It had 203 responses. I commend the report to the Minister and hope he will read all the conclusions. I shall refer only to several of them as I do not want to take up too much time.
The conclusions included one to the effect that 'all face-to-face interviewees should be automatically given a copy of the Atos medical report', which I understand is not always happening. That is an area
where the Minister could intervene to make sure that it does happen. Another conclusion was that 'more efficient communication is needed between the DWP and Atos' - and that is almost certainly true. I believe we can have a positive and constructive debate when we look at those sorts of points.
One further conclusion was: 'Atos healthcare professionals who carry out the face-to-face assessment should receive specialist training about fluctuating conditions, developed in consultation with organisations that support people with M.E. Training needs to be as frequent as the staff turnover at Atos requires'. Those are really important points to which I would like the Minister to pay some
attention.
We had a meeting in the House this week, but it was not possible to get a Minister to attend it. I would like to request that the offices of the all-party group be used for a meeting to talk about ME, the work capability assessment and fears about the personal independence payment in the future.
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