Panorama investigates the government’s plans to end the so-called ‘sick note culture’ and their attempts to get millions of people off disability benefits and into work. In Britain’s modern welfare state, millions are being paid to private companies to assess sick and disabled claimants but is the system working? Or are new tests wrongly victimising those who deserve support the most?
Related articles
I’m wondering if the outcome of this program won’t be swayed by the political back handers that are being passed about, I know Panorama is usually only fact based but with the Government not sacking G4s for their stupidity and ATOS being based on an Partly Illegal American system I’m quite frankly worried about how this will end.
I shall wait and see it on BBIi Catchup if it’s even put up for further viewing
because I refuse to own a TV and have been without one for 8 years now.
I noticed last night, next week’s ‘Dispatches’ on Channel-4 is going with a similar theme; it’ll be an interesting comparison, one virtually after the other, same night. Perhaps it’ll jointly set the tone for the week ahead (into the subsequent weeks of holiday time) to meditate on. Or worse! I was threatened with ‘Enforcement Officers’ once, by the TV-Licensing people … Haha! I know where you’re coming from. They have no implied right of entry to where I am; and it’s crap.
I won’t be able to watch Panorama if it is going to vilify us, because it is so distressing to witness lies. However, I suspect from the title that it isn’t going to do that. If it exposes ATOS that will be a coup. Despatches is normally a serious documentary that does good research so lets hope it exposes the truth. However, with the insane amount of Adlympics coverage, I wonder how many will actually watch these programmes?
If it is a positive programe then having it when the olympics are on will be a good thing as ATOS are sponsoring the olympics.
Good point Linda. I hope this fact will be included in one or both of the programmes, otherwise people who have not been at the sharp end of ATOS’s stick may not make the connection.
Being a pessimist I feel that Lou may be correct and it will be buried under the adlympic avalanche media coverage.
Panorama should have done an incisive critique of ATOS sponsors of the games this week prior to the opening ceremony.
Sadly I doubt if anyone but those concerned by the issue will bother to watch Dispatches. Will try and catch it on 4OD and Panorama on iPlayer.
You can be on disability benefits and at work. You don’t stop being disabled because you get a job.
But, Shirley P. Cooper, the 3-tiered ESA, on substituting for Incapacity Benefit via the Work Capability Assessment is a 3-way recategorisation of disability benefits entitlement, generally: work sans benefits (and DLA will subsequently be reclassified as something else: PIP), the whole idea is that “if you can work you won’t be needing benefits any longer”, thus translated through the prism of politicians: “You can now work, we’ve reassessed you to that effect, we’ve reassessed your benefit entitlement accordingly: Nil.”
Work sets you free [adrift]. So, in fact, being ELIGIBLE for work does mean you stop being disabled as-and-when you end up betrayed, and bootless.
another whitewash then if you think they go against our goverment i dont think so,as look at atos enough people have complained about them ,have they shown anything about them no and cant see much that panaorama will show other than someone working and pointing their finger look at the scroungers claiming and working if it was only true around half percent are actually fraudulent they shown us jeff3
Especially if you shouldn’t be there!
The BBC emply ATOS to look after all of their IT
Like everyone else I am sceptical about the Panoram programme. However, the Director and Producer are not necessarily big fans of Atos, so lets see what sort of a documentary they produce before fearing the worst. If it is as bad as expected, I for one will be contacting them.
I am advised that the Dispatches prog – Ch 4 8pm Mon – is VERY, VERY hard-hitting and, although they don’t dare to mention Unum Insurance, nevertheless, Dispatches has a very high resputation for not taking any prisoners. I am looking forward to their ‘expose’ against the WCA and it’s timing is perfect with the HOC in recess, so the PM and the Ministers shouldn’t be able to dismiss all with their carefully scripted ‘explanations’.
The Scottish Parliament have recently had access to my research portfolio and there has been a very serious reaction…. More later.
… More later! I’ll def look fwd to that, Mo.
Thank You So Much!
Can anyone tell me how to get hold of a welfare rights adviser . My sister has just been denied esa even though she has been on it for many years and her doctors have told her there would be no way she could hold down a job
CAB have advisors but tend to be rather overburdened. If you Google Disability Rights, then organisations will appear that could point you in the right direction. DIAL UK is a good organisation that could help signpost you, or help your sister directly if they are in your area. Also there should be an organisation in your county that has has information on all the Charity Sector organisations in your area. If you ring your local Council, they should give you contact details of this organisation.
Hope this helps… good luck.
Nothing more will be reported any time soon Manus.
All the parliaments are in summer recess, so there won’t be any meetings or discussions about the implications of the research for a few months in the Scottish or Welsh Parliaments, but there is at least hope that they may challenge London after the summer break.
A lot depends on the authority or otherwise of the devolved parliaments as the Welsh Assembly are only just accessing the info. Norman Lamb – Nick Clegg’s political adviser – was horrified when he was sent the info but was promptly silenced by Maria Miller.
Don’t underestimate the lengths this corrupt gvt will go to in order to avoid acknowledging the realities, and no-one at all will identify Unum as they all live in fear of the risk of litigation from a world corporate giant. That includes both the press and the TV companies. The only success so far against Unum was when they stopped their TV mass marketing for Income Protection Insurance due to ‘relentless and ongoing negative publicity’…
That was thanks to a lot of people sharing my research on the Internet, so thanks to all concerned.
Thanks Mo for your dedicated hard work. I’ll look forward to hearing more! I live in Wales and have contacted my A.M about ATOS/WCA-she is very concerned about how they operate and the disastrous effects on people’s lives. So your research will have a sympathetic ear there….
Thanks Lou.
We are all in this nightmare together so the more people who know what’s going on the better.
My research evidence can be found on my website at:
http://www.whywaitforever.com/dwpatosveterans.html, so please pass it on and educate the politicians especially. Most MPs haven’t got a clue. Individual reports are posted on this website thanks to the administrator.
This is an old report but important, about ME/CFS, and confirms Unum bogus activity – profits are more important than people again:
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/Notes_on_the_Insurance_issue_in_ME.htm
Now the DWP want to know why so many WCAs are being overturned at appeal and Chris Grayling is claiming that the DWP really want the WCAs to work – so WHY has the DWP totally ignored the past 10 consecutive annual reports by the President of the Appeal Tribunals, advising that the Atos Healthcare WCA assessments “fail to coincide with reality”?!
You really couldn’t make this up.
Atos don’t sponsor the olympics. They work for the IOC as a partner, running the IT. And they don’t decide the DWP policies, they just implement them.
Not too sure how any of us will manage seeing Atos up in lights at the para -olympics….
Mike Bach has already challenged one of the staff for touting for customers to the Games whilst wearing a name badge with the Atos Logo. After a chat he removed it….
So, both the PANORAMA and DISPATCHES TV progs did us proud, Harrington is being replaced – first advised by me a couple of months ago and now official – and still no-one will expose the link to Unum Insurance EXCEPT Private Eye, who’ve been exposing Unum since 1995, and Disability News Service have exposed quite a lot using quotes from me too… Rumour has it that I’m not too popular with the DWP..
HOWEVER, what both TV documentaries failed to expose is the fact that the DWP ‘Decision Makers’ are basic grade administrators, with no medical training, 97% of all assessments still rubber stamp the Atos assessment as the DWP staff are totally unqualified to do anything else…
I don’t know If anyone noticed, I’m not sure but I think it was in the “Dispatches” programme but many of the Atos trainers were Eastern European, one even said that she could only work for Atos as a trainer as her credentials were not recognised in the UK?
I know from people contacting me that many of the HCPs assessing people are of East Europena descent, this concerns me greatly but I’m sure this concern will be regarded as Racism by some?
Yes, she actually said she was only there (Atos Trainer), on ‘Dispatches’ because her “specialism” wasn’t recocognized [isn't valid] in this country. That sounds like euphemism for non-qualified, to me.
It reminded me me of an historical fact: “Hitler’s regime had to ultimately recruit most SS officers from The Ukraine, during the Second World War; the German military tyypes didn’t have the stomach for it!”
All of this has an Eastern European twang to it, somehow ….
Perhaps there is a reason for this?
I could certainly name a few (I feel sure now that ‘IDS’ is a closely guarded acronym) for starters.
I think they did mention that, Mo.
The vast majority of final decisions are based on the submissions from Atos, their assessments — Something like that, I thought.
They certainly didn’t qualify their commentary with the “basic grade administrators, with no medical training” bit, though it seemed implicit to me. But then again, I already knew that (but 97%) was in the gist of it.