Some Good News For A Change

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26766345

At last the useless ATOS have decided to move on.

[youngmafbog]

Well thats the advantage of using a private supplier, you can fire them. Unlike using the civil service where you are stuck with them complete with gold plated pensions and usually handshakes.

The Government(any party) should do this more often so companies get the idea not to mess with them.

[LazyGun]

Riiiight. Hoik out services related to state funds via an expensive and time consuming tendering process. Select the one that offers the cheapest price. Let them completely mess up the job, then back out of the contract claiming they can no longer do the job at that price, regardless of the fact that it was they who quoted the price in the first place, and then go through the whole process again.

Sounds like an excellent recipe for saving money and increasing efficiency and the transparency of governance :)

[ToraToraTora]

Not only that YMB, you get every job done in triplicate! perhaps Mikey and co are developing a new found affection for the private sector.

[Prudie]

Get with the C21st YMB "Unlike using the civil service where you are stuck with them complete with gold plated pensions and usually handshakes." That just doesn't happen anymore. Like teachers another profession the ill-informed thinks it's fair game to attack.

[Sqad]

Surprise! surprise.
Would you like to the MD of a company employed to "weed out " the chaff of a benefit system in the UK?
You would be on a loser to start with............method........take them for a ride and then get out.

[albaqwerty]

I've been waiting for an ATOS interview, does this mean they won't bother?

I hate to ask, but what on earth was originally wrong with a GP saying that their patient wasn't fit to work and their word was good enough?

It's my understanding that something like 3 out of 5 appeals against an ATOS decision were in favour of the claimant.

More money wasted...

[emmie]

i knew about this, but how does this leave those who are left waiting for assessments.

[emmie]

Atos will continue to carry out the assessments in Northern Ireland under a separate contract.

[emmie]

albs, the process was incredibly stressful the place i had to get to didn't have any kind of wheelchair access, not for me, but for other interviewees - not to mention that the 15 points that i got from the previous test, was obliterated in the second test a year later. So nil points awarded by the ATOS nurse, who basically did a tick box exercise, meant having to face the tribunal, to try and overturn the decision, which was a nightmare.

[albaqwerty]

I can only imagine the stress Emmie.

It's a disgusting practice to put the already unwell.ill.vulnerable people through.

I'm hoping when/if I go, it's on one of my really bad days.

[emmie]

the whole process is flawed, my welfare rights officer who had to help me with the forms and the tribunal says so, as do all the colleagues

[albaqwerty]

I took my time filling out the form. from memory, when a question appeared on page 5 (for example) I put down 'please refer to my reply on page 3 as they would have both been the same anyway.

If I was a GP, I'd be furious that my professional diagnosis was questioned by someone who ticks boxes.

[emmie]

personally i wouldn't do that, put a reference to a previous form,
however i was told that my form had so much info on it, assuming that was what was required, i don't think she read much of it. Can see a few yards, walk a few yards, tick box, bye bye.

[albaqwerty]

Emmie, can I ask how long you waited from submitting/posting the form to hearing about an 'interview' with them?

I seem to have been waiting ages, having said that, I bet the postie will bring it tomorrow!

[emmie]

can't honestly remember but it was a while, the whole process was 18 months long,

[albaqwerty]

blooming 'eck Emmie, that's a huge amount of time! :-(

[emmie]

from the phone call from DWP to the end, thereabouts, if you don't fight your corner you get railroaded. I didn't have a lot of get up and go, but did ask for help, which was ultimately invaluable, anyone from CAB to welfare rights, because its a crap system, no matter how many people think we are all freeloaders,

[mikey4444]

I had no idea that you had been through the mill with ATOS emmie...commiserations would seem to the order of the day.

What a pity that it has taken so long for the DWP to kick them out. But will the replacement be any better, when they are rewarded for how many they kick off benefits, despite ample evidence that a mistake has been made ?
It could be argued that ATOS were only doing their job, albeit rather more ruthlessly then was at first intended.

Interesting excerpt from my link ::

Disabilities Minister Mike Penning said: "I am pleased to confirm that Atos will not receive a single penny of compensation from the taxpayer for the early termination of their contract.

"Quite the contrary, Atos has made a substantial financial settlement to the department."

I wonder how much this settlement is ?

[emmie]

it didn't stop after the 18 months either,

[emmie]

thing is in principle its probably a good idea, but if you employ people to tick boxes, that is what you will get, box tickers, not people who have a vested interest in your welfare.