Atos Medical Assessments

[doktorjohn]

I reckon it will make it to our screens at some point WolfiesALady.

Atos also assess NHS staff and they said that a nurse was too ill to work (she was getting over anorexia) and when she lost her job Atos said she is fit and can't have ESA.

This is a true case and I'll try to find a link to it.

dj

[doktorjohn]

Not had time to find that link but the BBC have reported on this subject more than once I think. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8465122.stm

[Vixxy]

they probably make commission for everyone they get booted off benefits.

[doktorjohn]

I believe they do have an arrangement but I can't say exactly what it is because
I'm only just learning about it all as I go along.

What I've heard so far is staggering and it's amazing it carries on. The trouble is that
right-wing voices are against "paying for a benefits culture" with their taxes.

Ignoring that we have paid taxes and are really ill. I'm sure you know score on that kind
of hate-mongering.

dj

[PoppyC]

Hi
I am now working, but I do know a lot about benefits as I used to work for the DWP.
Anyone who is on Incap Benefit will be moved onto ESA within the next 2 years.
What is happening is that the genuine cases, whether suffering with physical or mental health, are being made to suffer due to the types who are fit for work but sponge off the system fraudently.
The conservatives are going to be very strict on who gets ESA, but do not forget that Labour under Tony Blair brought in the changes!
Even people with agoraphobia are going to have to go into the DWP office to sign on for ESA every 2 weeks to claim it and if they don't the money will be reduced every time until nothing.
All I can advise is go to your gp/mental health team and get them to write a letter saying how you are affected, to the DWP and that way you may be able to not have to sign on and in some instances your own gp may be able to give you the medical rather than the DWP's own medical examiners.

[doktorjohn]

Hi PoppyC.

Yes labour did let us down big-time with this and the Tories will make it worse.
GP's don't have the power they used to have in these matters, but yes, let's get them on-side.

Something's gotta give.

dj

[PoppyC]

Hi again doktorjohn
Yes it was Labour and now the Conservatives, who are trying to cut money, anyway they can. It is not fair on the genuinely unwell, be it physically or mentally.
The people who are claiming benefits when there is nothing wrong with them, have made it now much harder for the genuine claimants.
I think it is all so unfair - talk about penalising the vulnerable! instead of the real culprits of benefit fraud including those who claim thousands fraudently, whilst working, who I read about in the papers, living extravagant and expensive lifestyles, and then go to court and get ordered to pay it all back at about a £1 a week!
What annoys me is that unwell people, having probably worked in the past, and paid taxes, get targeted as lazy scroungers, and yet people can come to this country, having never worked and contributed here, including their parents and grandparents, and claim benefits as as asylum seekers! Maybe not politically correct of me to write that but it is true.
People can appeal but it does take some time.
How can people who are so badly affected, work? I could not get out of bed when I had a nervous breakdown, let alone go to sign on! Thankfully I lived with my partner.
What employer is going to employ very unwell people, in the first place, once they find out what they are suffering with! Secondly...where are the job vacancies these days!
How can agoraphobics for example get out to sign on at an office every 2 weeks, and if they dont then the benefits get cut further for each time missed.
I am agoraphobic, so I guess how hard that must be.Thankfully I can work, but I can imagine how hard it would be otherwise.
Its all so wrong. I think anyone going through a hard time getting their rightful benefits and receiving unfair treatment by ATOS, should contact Citizens Advice, get their gp to write letters, as well as involve their mental health team, - do everything they can to appeal.

[miles]

I've posted before about my history so I won't bore you again....

Been suffering for 8 months now and had to stop work throughout. I've always paid my taxes, and so went through Atos paperwork etc. to get benefit. They took over 6 months to assess me (during which I got nothing), then arranged for a medical assessment at Atos. I kept contacting them to ask why I hadn't received anything for months, and they said it would be decided by Atos medical.

I explained that I had sent 3 sick notes from doc for the previous 7 months and the lady said it made no difference and that the Atos medical overrules your GP.

So I received no benefit for nearly 8 months, and in the end I couldn't face doing the Atos medical assessment - because I was too ill to drive and they very kindly sent me a route by public transport.... 4 buses and 2 trains.

I was so depressed I rang and told them not to bother, so I received no benefits for 8 months and now I'm working part time (which is really hard).

BUT! this is not why I write this post!
I suspect all of us on here are in the same boat... and we're too anxious to 'play' the system or lie to get what we want.

What really angers me is that I really did want my life back and eventually got part time work, although it's hard going.

I know of nine people, 4 of them related to me, who get full Incapacity Benefit. Noe of them are ill! They are all long term unemployed adults, and they complain of backaches and stress and because they have been long term on sick benefit won't be assessed by Atos for another 2 years.

Makes me so angry!

One of them is 47, been on sick benefit for ten years because he pretends he's got depression, and works for cash during the week.

That's the point I want to make, before everyone gets made at politicians or the system etc. It's the scroungers such as these that have broken the system and taken all the budget. The people I know play the system and get full benefits..... even getting discretionary loans from the DHSS/DWP for new cookers and washers etc.

I feel so sorry for genuine ill people because the ill people are not strong enough to make a good case for themselves, whereas the scroungers will use every trick in the book.

makes me so mad!!!!

One relative (the one that works and gets IB) asked me how my claim was going. I said I hadn't got anything. He said I'd just have to get back to work.... when I asked him how about him getting a job his reply:

"listen, it's not worth me getting a job, it's hard enough as it is on sickness benefit, after my bills are paid and with my cash jobs I'm only left with £700 a month to spend, anyway everyone does it"

welcome to Britain, where the system works for the scroungers.....

[doktorjohn]

Spot on Miles. I could not agree more. I know some scroungers as well, they will find it harder to cheat, but not as hard as the really ill, who will find it too difficult to get what they deserve.

The government are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

dj

[Angelai]

An example for you.

My mum has emphysema (sp?), chronic lung disease, chronic asthma, osteo-arthritis. She uses a nebulizer 4 times a day (3 different drugs) and takes numerous pills and inhalers. She has to carefully plan her days to involve the least number of trips up and down the stairs. She can't even walk to the end of her road without having to sit down and or/have a puff on an inhaler.

Last year, 2 months before her 60th birthday, Atos decided she was fit for work. She would have to get a job or sign on for job seekers allowance. Her doctor was absolutely incensed and wanted to appeal on her behalf - how dare they question the opinion and authority of a doctor with 40 years experience, who has been treating my mum for 12 years?

Mum was lucky enough to come across a very sympathetic soul at the job centre (a rarity, it seems) who told her not to worry, just come and sign her name for 2 months then she would be on to her pension. However, at her second appointment it was a completely different story. Apparently, mum was able to work for an hour each day (in between nebulizer sessions and taking into account her illnesses), and the advisor wanted to know why mum hadn't applied for any jobs. Mum asked what kind of job she could do for only an hour a day, the advisor suggested, rather snottily, dinner lady. Mum asked if she had any vacancies for a dinner lady and was told, not at the moment... This advisor then went on to say, very nastily, that she herself had diabetes and SHE still managed to go to work. Where do they get these people...

I think it's absolutely disgraceful the way genuinely ill people are treated by this NON-MEDICALLY TRAINED group of decision makers. Thankfully, mum is now getting her pension (which wasn't an easy task, in the end, but that's another story).