ATOS AND THE BIGGER PICTURE

ATOS, a private profit making company, carries out medical examinations to determine whether a claimant is capable of working on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

ATOS are currently recruiting more staff to help meet Government targets to force more people off disability benefits to reduce the public debt problem caused by banks gambling in the financial markets. The process is driven by cost cutting not objective medical opinion. The most vulnerable in society are being made to pay for the greed of others and the inevitable booms and busts of capitalist economics.

Medical professionals, including physiotherapists, with no experience of mental health problems, for example, are only given a matter of days training before making assessments of claimants. They are paid substantially more than NHS doctors and nurses for leaving their ethical concerns at the door. ATOS claim that they do not make the decision as to whether someone can work and have their benefits reduced, but that the decision is made by the DWP from their report and that performance targets are based simply on the number of claimants seen in a day. However they admit that if a medical professional passes all claimants for disability benefits it will not go unnoticed.

We will be giving out leaflets advising claimants on how to deal with the medical examination:  http://antibenefitcutsglasgow.wordpress.com
Contact for more info:  antibenefitcutsglasgow@gmail.com

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