Tim Salter took his own life following an Atos evaluation and then Atos withdrew of his benefits and, the DWP made the very same worn out declaration that people have the opportunity to appeal these judgements.
Yet appeals need an understanding of the law that is greater than most claimants have and, people in real need are self-respecting people, like Tim, who don’t like to make a fuss and desire to stay unnamed for fear of being identified as benefit scroungers.
It’s time that fitness for work evaluations were passed back to General Practitioners or consultants, who are far more likely to know their patients and the consequences of their conditions.
Now you can read with revulsion how Tim Salter took his own life after being evaluated by an Atos functionary who had no skills of mental health matters, but sadly, this is all too widespread.
Thousands of severely sick and disabled people have tragically met their death shortly after being proclaimed fit for work by Atos and the Department of Work and Pensions while many more have seen benefits cut, bringing about great deprivation and suffering.
As for the DWP, who assert that people can appeal, all they’re doing is discouraging people and, the Tory thinking is “money before people.”
Once again, Atos, the company paid by the Government to get disabled people back into employment, has been demonstrated to be heartless and barbaric.
I’m afraid the instance of Tim Salter is just the tip of the iceberg and, I suppose his suicide weighs substantially on Iain Duncan Smith’s moral senses because now Atos should be stripped naked of its Government contracts.
Tim Salter was impelled to end his life following Atos proclaimed him fit for work, which is disturbing and, this foul French company, together with heartless Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, must be brought to account and, they must be removed.
Anybody who has an Atos evaluation should question the assessor on what qualifications they have to investigate them, for this is what it is, just a shammed investigation to put an end to them from claiming what they qualify.
Tim Salter was visually impaired and was afflicted with agoraphobia and depression but was assessed as being fit for work by a physiotherapist, a verdict that drove him to take his own life; I hope this assessor can sleep soundly at night.
Atos evaluates a claimant’s robustness for work in an isolated habitat. They don’t assess whether that person can do these manoeuvres over and over again, eight hours a day, five days a week, which is the actual analysis of whether or not somebody is fit for work.
Nearly all claimants, even seriously sick or disabled ones, can carry out tests in an Atos assessment room but this doesn’t mean they can work.
Besides what work would that be anyhow? There are not sufficient jobs for people in good health, so who is going to hire somebody with health or mobility difficulties?
When is the haughty Iain Duncan Smith going to be held accountable for his deeds? Without question, if he is in charge, then he should be culpable for the suicide of people such as Tim Salter as well as the other people that have taken their lives because of the people he has declared fit for work.
When you read of despairing mothers shoplifting to feed their children, the understanding and compassionate way the police cope with offenders gives some hopefulness, in contrast to the unpleasant, cowardly Iain Duncan Smith, the designer of making the poverty-stricken even worse off.
He hasn’t got the courage to front his critics in Parliament. As an alternative, he makes extensive statements and twisted declarations with no chance for retort.
Once again we discover the Coalition being thrifty with the facts. George Osborne’s claims that coming to grips with tax avoidance are a prime concern has been exposed as further myth after confessing there are just four tax officers pursuing 124 of the biggest swindlers who are in debt to the Treasury for hundreds of millions.
The Government pays out a tiny amount running after tax dodgers while slashing benefits to our old, sick and disabled. The election can’t come fast enough for me.
In this New Year’s talk, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says he can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have a news flash for Mr Clegg and his Tory colleagues, so can I, it’s called election day 2015…
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 