Day of protest against Atos

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Day of protest against Atos

Just thought I'd flag up that 19th February is a national day of protest against Atos, the French company behind a series of farcical medical assessments that have denied millions of disabled people benefits. Some of the decisions I came across in my work at Parkinson's UK were frankly astonishingly stupid. My favourite, of course, remains the former civil servant who was told by the Department's medical assessors (Atos) that she was too sick to continue in work, and forced to quit her job even though she didn't want to, only to be told by an Atos assessor that she was totally, 100% fit for work and not eligible for benefits. 

 

The day focusses on the 10,600 people who died within six weeks of being told they were fit for work (after all, there are plenty of jobs a corspe could do). 

 

http://ukrebellioncom.ipage.com/atosdemo/ 

 

For further details read Sighs of a Mouse by Footsie. 

I am not sure if I can get out to my nearest protest which is in Exeter, however I shall be with them in spirit. In my experience after people fall ill they often want and need to return to work - when they feel ready.  For individuals to get hounded and hassled by the Job Centre, and subjected to an ATOS assessment and to then have their benefits cut when they are at their lowest ebb is simply the government kicking people when they are down.

Also a lot of people even after they return to work have to live with the awareness that they have an unpredictable disorder that can flare up out of the blue and put them out of action again.

It's far too easy to blame the out of work for being out of work in an unkind and unthinking way. I hope today's day of protest day gets all the support and good publicity it rightfully deserves       Elsiesmiley

My favourite was Bobby who was told he was fit for work only for him to die a week later. He didn't win his appeal.

 

why are they spending all this time and money on ATOS work assessments in the first place? You don't get Employment and Support Allowance without a medical certificate from your GP, which clearly states your inability to work. Is the Government saying that GPs aren't capable of making those decisions for some reason? That they're fraudulently signing people off? Because if so, it seems to me it's the GPs they need to investigate and penalise, not sick people. It doesn't make sense!

 

Let's play politics. You're not allowed to say anything bad about the backbone of our society the General Practioner. Most of them, in the pre-Uniiversity loan era, would have been educated for over twenty years by the state, at a very substantial cost. You're not allowed to say anything against those paragons of virtue that make the lame walk and blind see that work for Atos, also educated at a very substantial cost by the state. Who can we blame? Poor people. Little education. Very little power. They cost too much. That's an easy one to sell to a self-satisfied and self-interested pollsters.

 

I understand what you'e saying celt, but I'd be interested to see what the official response is. There must be one. i can'tpossibly be the first person to have asked the question