So
unemployment has reached a 17 year high, the Government has plans to introduce
a piece of nonsense called the Welfare Reform Bill along with changes to the
Housing Benefit system you can only wonder how it will end.
Presently,
all Income Support and Incapacity claims are being replaced by Employment
Support Allowance which require all those who are classified as Disabled or suffer from Long Term Sickness, by their own GP’s, being put through a degrading and humiliating
Medical Assessment, most of the time conducted by Specialist Nurses employed by
ATOS HEALTHCARE, a division of ATOS IT who’s gross annual revenue is £8.6
Billion, and who are disgustingly paid over £100 Million per year by the
Government, to deem the most sick and vulnerable within our society fit for
some form of work.
Three
quarters of those who attend these Medicals will indeed be cured by the key
stroke of a keyboard, and will find themselves not within the qualifying criteria
to receive the replacement Employment Support Allowance, unless they take their
case to Appeal. Whilst waiting they will
receive only the bare essential component of Employment Support Allowance
although their daily needs or medical conditions have not changed.
If
successful, and most are, they will then indeed be entitled the full Employment
Support Allowance an entitlement they received under the old Income Support and
Incapacity Benefit system. All of this
can take up to 9 months to resolve and in some cases longer. There have been
cases of many who have not lived long enough for their Appeal Cases to be
heard. So far it has cost the Government
a staggering £80 Million for the cost of these Appeals. Although, Atos are responsible for initially considering individuals fit for work, they are under no obligation to refund any cost back to the Government when someone has a successful Appeal outcome.
But
really at the end of the day with the soaring unemployment figures can we
really believe that the jobs are really available for the disabled and long
term sick, or should the Government just be honest and tell the public that the
Government had misappropriated the National Health Contributions spending the
money unnecessarily elsewhere, or that’s what I’ve heard.
On
the other hand the Government is determined to introduce their Work Programmes,
funded by the Government again from the public purse and lining the already
bulging pockets of their own. In order
to justify the need for such programmes they will need the clients, and with
little or no choice those who are the most vulnerable and ill will be FORCED to
attend.
Shame
on you all…
