Local services count the cost of ATOS / DWP failings

Local charities and advisory services have told Virtual-Lancaster that they have been swamped with work resulting from the damage being repeatedly and routinely done to local sick and disabled people in need of state welfare benefits by Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) contractor Atos Healthcare.

The ‘Work Capability Assessments‘ regularly carried out on claimants by Atos are supposed to determine if people previously deemed sick or disabled by their GPs are in fact ‘fit for work’.  Atos’ tests have been described as ‘Not Fit For Purpose’ in a report published by North Lancashire Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), who give a series of of examples demonstrating the damage being done on a routine basis to the most vulnerable local people.

“A client came to the Bureau for help because he had failed his ESA medical.   He has learning difficulties, cannot read or write, has memory problems and suffers acute anxiety and panic attacks.  Because of the adverse finding at the medical assessment stage his benefits have been stopped causing distress and financial hardship, and associated stress.  He has been without benefit for several months because he did not understand about appealing (when he would have received reduced benefit), or that he should have put in a new claim for housing benefit and council tax benefit etc.”

Other cases cited in the report describe people in the terminal stages of illness or with obvious physical or mental illnesses that render them unable to work. Yet every single one had been assessed as ‘fit for work’ by Atos, and had their benefits stopped by the DWP.

CAB nationally responded to 97,000 requests for support on this issue alone in the first three months of 2012.

Local services for families, young people and the elderly have all been affected because so much local resource has had to be channelled into clearing up the chaos caused by Atos. Get Connected in Morecambe is a volunteer-led service set up to offer support and advice to a wide range of clients in Morecambe’s West End.  They have found much of their time spent instead in trying to meet need created by the DWP / Atos process, in particular for people with chronic mental health problems. Many have had their benefits stopped after being found ‘fit for work’ and then been unable to undertake, or indeed understand, the necessary steps for survival or to keep a roof over their heads.

Local award-winning charity Disability Online, set up to provide a range of advice and counselling services for local disabled people has also had to refocus most of its resource into assisting hundreds of vulnerable and desperate clients through an endless cycle of annual assessments and appeals – with an appeal success rate of over 90%.   Again, VL has heard from them of tragic cases where appeals have been allowed posthumously. (Necessary as grieving families must also cope with debts left from caring for a member with a terminal illness and no income).

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