Iain Duncan-Smith
A few weeks ago, Iain Duncan-Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, unwisely declared that he “would be able to live on £53 a week.” Almost immediately, an online petition was started challenging the Minister to back up those claims. The petition swiftly attracted enormous support, into the hundreds of thousands, and it looked for a while as if IDS was going to have to bite the bullet and do what he said he could. Perhaps unsurprisingly though, he abruptly slid out from under, claiming that the petition was a “stunt”, and that anyway he’d managed “to live on the breadline” earlier in his career, during a spell on the dole after his release from the Army. He neglected to mention that he was in the slightly more fortunate than most position of being married to a millionaire’s daughter – so it seems probably that hardship didn’t bite too savagely.
Whatever the rights and wrongs, IDS had bottled it, rather testily as befits the arrogance of the man. Now, the Department of Work and Pensions – his ministerial responsibility – is the focus once more of a headline which reflects ill upon it. It’s been reported that 1300 people have died after being placed in the Work Related Activity Group following “medical” examinations under the aegis of the notorious French IT firm Atos. 1300 dead people. That’s a horrific number, and these are people, let’s not forget, of whom it was expected by Atos, and by extension, by the DWP, that they should be making moves to get back to work. It is the saddest of ironies that death should follow so swiftly, for so many people, after a decision that they should be forced imminently back into employment.
So I now have another petition, and I’m seeking YOUR support. The petition calls upon Iain Duncan-Smith to instigate a Public Enquiry into the conduct of Atos, with particular record to this appalling fatality rate. An Enquiry would seem appropriate, for an organisation which has been branded “Not fit for purpose” by the British Medical Association, and which has itself recently issued a wheedling apology to the people it has wrongly found fit for work. The apology is aimed at the survivors of the Atos experience, you understand. Sadly, it is too late to apologise to the 1300 who have died.
The petition I’m asking you to sign can be accessed here. Please click the link, sign the petition, and share it as widely as possible. Share this article too. It all helps, and maybe if things go well, we can make a difference. A lot of people are out there, counting on your support to start some sort of change for the better. Help them, in memory of the 1300 who have paid the ultimate price for official incompetence and callous disregard for how human beings are being treated.
About Rob Atkinson
51 years old, formerly a professional do-gooder at the Citizens Advice Bureau, now happily ploughing my own furrows in a few different fields. Prolific blogger for Huffington Post, my own blog and elsewhere - proudly opinionated lefty git. One wife, one daughter. Love Leeds United, less than fond of certain football franchises who shall remain nameless here. I believe the pen to be mightier than the sword, but as I get writer's cramp when I attempt lo-tech scribing, I'd prefer not to test this maxim in open combat.
