ANTONY WALKER had his benefits docked after French firm’s fitness-to-work tests – but experts at an appeal took just minutes to see sense and overturn the decision.
BRAVE Antony Walker has spent his whole life battling cerebral palsy. But when Atos put him through their hated fit-for-work test, he scored ZERO.
The 25-year-old Scot needed 15 points in the tick-box test to get the benefit payments he needed.
But despite his debilitating brain condition, which forces him to use crutches and makes simple tasks a painful struggle, he says the French company “for all intents and purposes considered me able-bodied”.
After the assessment, Iain Duncan Smith’s Department for Work and Pensions refused to give Antony employment and support allowance and told him to start looking for a job.
Stunned, Antony appealed. It took him eight months to get a hearing. And after hearing the evidence, an expert panel needed just 10 minutes to decide Atos were wrong.
Antony became one of tens of thousands of people to win appeals after Atos Work Capability Assessments.
The Government’s own statistics have shown that more than a third of people who challenge decisions – 37 per cent – get them overturned.
There have been more than 600,000 appeals since Work Capability Assessments began, at a cost to the taxpayer of about £60million a year.
Antony, from Greenock, wants to work. Despite his condition, he finished a university degree in Italian and marketing and has applied for dozens of jobs.
But his condition makes life a daily struggle and he was outraged at how the Atos test dismissed it.
He told the Record: “I have a lifelong condition. If anything, it’s not going to get better – it’s going to get worse.
“But the fact I could score zero meant that for all intents and purposes Atos considered me to be an able-bodied person. I was quite shocked by that.
“I just don’t think the assessments are designed to reflect how wide-ranging disability can be. It was black and white. It didn’t take grey areas into account.
“Much of the assessment was incorrect or misleading. They wrote that I could walk 500 metres, but it doesn’t mean I’m on a par with an able-bodied person.
“Yes, I can walk 500 metres. But by the time I get there, I’m exhausted and in pain.
“Atos had me down as able to lift a box, but that requires great effort for me. I can’t lift boxes all day.
“And I was assessed as being able to do my shopping in 20 minutes, when in fact I’d said it takes me 20 minutes to do my shopping online. It’s not as though I pop down to Sainsbury’s.
Daily Record
