RE: Capita has taken on a five-year lease at Grange Park20 Oct 2023 16:34
By John Pring on 19th October 2023
Category: Benefits and Poverty
➡️Atos ‘is left with blood on its hands’ after DWP calls time on its 20 years of assessments
Separate head and shoulders pictures of James Oliver in a hospital bed and Stephen Carre with a black cat.
Two disabled campaigners whose brothers’ deaths were closely linked to the actions of the outsourcing company Atos have welcomed the announcement that its 20 years of carrying out disability assessments for the government will end next year.
From September next year, Atos will no longer deliver disability benefit assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
DWP announced this week that it had awarded a five-year contract to carry out assessments in south-west England to Serco, which first sought to carry out assessments for personal independence payment (PIP) more than 10 years ago.
Contracts to carry out assessments in other parts of the UK were awarded to private sector providers earlier this year, with Atos again missing out.
Among those welcoming the news was Sarah Carré.
Her brother Stephen took his own life in January 2010 after he was found fit for work, following an Atos work capability assessment (WCA) that failed to seek any evidence from his GP or psychiatrist and ignored what he had told an assessor about his significant mental distress.
A coroner later concluded that his suicide was triggered by the decision to find him fit for work.
Sarah Carré told Disability News Service (DNS): “I’d like to believe that they lost the contract as a result of their bad behaviour, and I’d like to believe that disabled people will be treated with honesty and fairness now, but my cynicism appears to have become ingrained after the last 13 years.
“I’d also like to be a better person and wish the staff losing their jobs all of the best for the future – but I don’t.
“Childish of me, perhaps, but I feel nothing but contempt for anyone complicit in that company.
“I’ll reserve my good wishes for the individuals and families who have suffered the untold damage caused by them.
“A very good riddance from me, and let’s hope that we never have to hear from them again.”
Dave Smith is another whose sibling’s death was closely linked to the actions of Atos.
His brother James Oliver was desperately ill with chronic liver disease caused by alcohol dependency, as well as other health conditions including scoliosis, hypertension and depression, but he was twice denied PIP following Atos assessments.
Shortly before he died in hospital, in April 2019, he told his brother: “I can’t believe it. I am dying, I am going to be dead, and I’m still not sick enough to get PIP.”
Smith said he was “delighted” that Atos would no longer be delivering assessments.
He said the Atos nurse who carried out his brother’s second assessment ignored clear evidence of how much he was struggling in his d
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