17/01/2013

Emotional MPs Discuss Anxiety and Hardship Caused by Work Capability Assessments

Atos told incontinent woman to ‘wear nappy’


Thousands of sick or disabled people have died after undergoing assessments to find out whether they were fit to work, the House of Commons was told today.


Atos, the firm contracted to conduct work capability assessment (WCA) tests for the Government, was condemned by MPs for “ruthlessly” pressurising sick and disabled people into returning to their jobs.

The debate was told of cases of people who had committed suicide after being stripped of their benefits under the process and of an incontinence sufferer who was told she could return to work wearing a nappy.

Former Labour minister Michael Meacher opened the debate saying that 1,300 people had died after being placed in the “work-related activity group”, for those currently too ill to be employed but expected to start preparing for an eventual return to work...

...Kevan Jones, a former Labour minister, said suicides of claimants who were found fit to work by Atos had been reported. “There are...a number of well-publicised cases where people have taken their own lives because of this system,” he said. “It is not too strong to say that this Coalition Government has blood on their hands for the deaths of those individuals.”


 

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for speaking up. I've thanked you already on Twitter, but I am just so glad you stood up for us. People so readily forget that we are PEOPLE with FEELINGS.

    ReplyDelete