DONT FORGET IT WAS LABOUR THAT GAVE ATOS THE CONTRACT! And now it looks like the Coalition is giving them a new contract before withdrawing the old one, and without having to compete for it ... ... the new scheme was not going to be competed (as they had assumed), but had been handed on a plate to National Savings and Investments. NS&I itself is 90 percent outsourced to Atos. They basically run the entire operation apart from the ‘intelligent client’ function and some marketing and strategy elements. ... this major new piece of work, worth many millions, has been passed to Atos without any competitive process. Atos, who announced they were pulling out of the DWP medical examination contract recently, citing their staff being threatened (nothing to do then with the fact they were pretty much on a final warning with DWP). ... And worth remembering that not all claimants will be free of Atos: ... Atos Healthcare will continue to deliver the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments in Scotland, north of England, London and south of England. This is separate from the Work Capability Assessment contract, which is used when the government decides whether people should get disability benefits because their ability to work is affected. Earlier in March, MPs rounded on the government over the implementation of PIP saying it was unacceptable that disabled and sick people had to wait six months or more to find out if they are eligible for benefits. Macmillan Cancer Support said the time being taken in many cases was “appalling” saying that terminally ill people were also experiencing stress over delays. Basic failures were cited such as appointments being cancelled without notice or unsatisfactory answers over minor queries. MPs say Atos misled the Government in its official bid to win a multimillion-pound contract to assess the needs of disabled benefit claimants. ... And as Labour has now agreed to the Tories welfare cap they are going to need companies that are prepared to ruthlessly deny people the benefits they are due - IMO
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 14:59:38 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015