“We wouldn’t allow a private contractor to let us down on the Olympics, we can’t allow one to let down disabled people.” – Gillian Guy, Citizens Advice CEO
Citizens Advice today renewed its call for the government to impose financial penalties on Atos for every inaccurate work capability assessment report that they produce.
The call follows National Audit Office criticism of the Department for Work and Pensions’ failure to penalise Atos – the private company with whom it has a contract to carry out ‘fitness for work’ medical assessments – for under-performance.
Citizens Advice Chief Executive Gillian Guy said:
“We wouldn’t allow a private contractor to let us down on the Olympics, we can’t allow one to let down disabled people. Mistakes by Atos have a human cost and a cost to the tax payer. Getting medical assessments right first time is absolutely essential to ensuring that seriously ill and disabled people get the support they are entitled to, and cutting the number of unnecessary appeals.
“Private companies on government contracts must be accountable to the public. Government should act now to put in place regular, independent monitoring of the accuracy of work capability assessment (WCA) reports and look at imposing financial penalties on Atos for every inaccurate report that they produce.”
CAB advisers helped with more than 97,000 ESA problems in the three months January to March 2012 – up 71 per cent compared with the same quarter last year, making ESA the fastest growing advice issue seen in bureaux.
In the same three month period, bureaux recorded an 82 per cent increase in advice about appeals against ESA decisions. Over a quarter of all advice given by bureaux about ESA concerns appeals. Latest official DWP figures say 32 per cent of appeals against an ESA decision are successful and CAB advisers estimate the success rate at appeal where someone receives specialist CAB advice and is represented is around 80 per cent.
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I think that all WCAs should be recorded so that it will cut down the works of fiction which appear instead of accurate Results.
There are far too many cases where the HCPs appear to have either lied or missed out results
So the HCPs should be made to attend tribunals to justify what they have said or not said.
Where the tribunals find for the claimants then Atos should be fined and persistent HCP offenders should be dismissed as “not fit for purpose”
i rather doubt it dwp fine atos but with all the appeals they should be fined and shown the door and thrown out of britain for their failure jeff3
Before I file the criminal & civil charges I’m about to bring against the 2 quacks personally who deliberately lied about me on their respective reports about me, causing myself & others around me considerable losses that are not simply confined to benefits, I’m writing to them both to inform them of my intentions, simply out of fairness, & reminding them both of the 2006 Fraud act! Notably sections 2 to 4 of that act. They are both as guilty as sin & I HAVE already proved it beyond doubt & hold that proof they so kindly but stupidly provided me with! I’d love to be a fly on their respective walls when they open the letters! I don’t think I’ve seen anyone do this yet, but there has to be a first & I have absolutely no problem with it being in the public arena!…lol.
right on steve nice one…dont forget to tell the press…YOU WILL BE HEARD…i myself have an appeal coming up and i’m taking any crap from them…let us know what happens….THE FIGHT GOES ON…REGARDS… SANDRA.PS i was seen by a so called nurse for 10 minutes and she asked me 3 questions and claimed she took 25 minutes i mean there so good at fairy stories are they not.
You actually got to see a doctor ? I got to see a ‘trained professional’ that barely spoke english and knew nothing at all about my illness, I’m not sure she knew much about any illness tbh, she had just been trained to fill out forms. Apperently I am a woman as well, she could not even tell gender ?
well folks what can you expect they are getting away with murder…atos and the dwp pass the buck to each other…if this contract is under constant review then in order to join this so-called goverment then the ability to read and write just does not count…we all what cretins they are…no wonder they did’nt want the programme on channel4 to read the whole constract…but it did’nt stop us from knowing that it’s flawed…but we’ve always known that…now its been confrimed and the screws are on them…AND IT MUST BE KEPT UP…THE FIGHT GOES ON…REGARDS…SANDRA.
Well f*ck me! Its about time!
Note C.A.B took over 3yrs to demand this. We were all saying this within 12months of the Atos fascistic regime.
Im sorry guys but i just get annoyed by their sluggish route to help us.
That said, im not ungrateful now theyve caught up.
Personally i believe the fines should be made as compensatory funds to the claimant and NOT, be given to dwp…. How ludicrous would it be for the cash to end up back in govs pockets!
Come on CAB fight properly and let justice be served aptly.
i know what you all mean? i have osteo-arthritus,ibs,anxiety with panic attacks,constant headaches,aggressive disorder,memory loss,and i have been subject to 3 yes 3 of these so called medicals the 1st one i scored nil so i appealed,the 2nd medical i scored 6 points again i appealed,the 3rd yes you’ve guessed it nil points, my doctor and hospital consultants can not understand this and nor can i i’ve just had a 4th assessment which i have no doubt i will fail again, they have seen over 20 yrs of medical notes and yet they go with these ATOS idiots who have seen me for about 10 mins on each assessment, i was led to believe that these drs were not supposed to know anything about you or if you’ve had any medical assessments in the past yet the assessment i’ve just had was carried out by the same dr who did my 2nd medical, and i already complained about this dr as he had seen the notes from the 1st medical as he copied them nearly word for word,he slipped up when he mentioned cataracts which was only in the 1st report which my notes had been mixed up with another person so i had a mr laos disabilities in my medical notes a well as my own (incompetence)this agency is an utter joke,
i’ll sum it up with what a taxi driver told me he said these were agency workers whose job it was to get as many people of esa as possible