Disabled people are rightly furious that the government hides behind the incompetency of private firms when assessing benefits claims.
Even though disabled people have made their views on the system used to assess their case for benefits claims known in a recent Westminster protest, it appears that little is being done to change things. Anyone who genuinely cares about disability rights will be dismayed to see benefits being cut and people driven to turn up outside parliament in their wheelchairs just to get their point heard.
The government use French company Atos to manage the assessment process which has made it a target for disabled people who have suffered at the hands of its rigorous and often inaccurate assessments. According to a recent article in the Guardian the company has a success rate of just 40% in England and 70% in Scotland. This has of course led to £ millions of taxpayers’ money being wasted over the years with little sign of this situation improving.
Such a poor success rate rightly leads to questions about its reliability and whether some disabled people are actually losing benefits they are in fact entitled to. This clearly puts Atos in a precarious position trapped between a government that appears not to care and disabled people who treat it as public enemy number one.
There are even suggestions that the government is using the French IT company as a shield against its unpopular policies. If the system isn’t working then blame the private sector company and change the provider if necessary, anything as long as the campaigners are kept at arm’s length appears to be the policy of the coalition.
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