Can anyonewho has been for an ATOS interview help?

[Tradescanthia 10]

Hi Mikem, the off topic bit was aimed at someone else, not your good self.

Thanks again

[beefface 10]

I don't think anybody thinks that every disability claim is legitimate. Has anybody actually claimed that to be the case?

 

 

 

Have you done any research into ATOS and its methodology? It doesn't sound like you have so, if you would like to inform your opinion, you could start with the Panorama documentary Disabled or Faking it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lldrc/Panorama_Disabled_or_Faking_It/

 

or the Dispatches episode Who's Cheating Who?

 

 

 

 

Below I have highlighted several individuals and organisations who have not been negatively assessed by ATOS but do question their methodology.

 

The performance of Atos Healthcare in the UK in respect of Work Capability Assessment (WCA) has been criticised by the Commons Select Committee for Work and Pensions, by individual MPs . It is also frequently criticised by the press, as well as by advocacy groups such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, disabled people's organisations and individual disabled people.Professor Paul Gregg, one of the designers of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), has stated that the WCA is "badly malfunctioning", concluding that, "the current assessment is a complete mess." Professor Malcolm Harrington, asked by the Government to carry out the independent review of the WCA, concluded in 2012 that there were "certainly areas where it's still not working."

 

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), with responsibility for ESA decision-making, was reported in 2011 to have by far the highest number of decisions overturned at appeal of any UK Department of State. According to the Department of Work and Pensions' own statistics, approximately 38% of all appeals against ESA eligibility decisions are successful (rising to approximately 70% when advocacy groups are involved). This equates to around 9% of all ESA decisions.

 

In 2012 43 complaints were being investigated against Atos doctors and nurses, by the General Medical Council or Nursing & Midwifery Council.

 

Particular criticism has been directed at Atos over the ability of its staff to deal with complex mental health issues and patients with varying conditions. Doctors receive eight days of training in disability before being allowed to assess patients and nurses receive a seventeen day training course accredited by the University of Derby. In August 2012, Atos Healthcare claimed they had appointed 60 Mental Function Champions to provide additional training.

 

A very common complaint is the refusal of the assessors to make eye contact. Assessors have found patients with terminal cancer or severe multiple sclerosis to be fit for work.

 

In an article for the BMJ, a doctor attended an Atos recruitment seminar and then detailed her experience. She concluded that she did not feel it was possible for a doctor to work as an Atos assessor and simultaneously adhere to their professional responsibility to place the needs of the patient first at all times. In response to a comment by a reader of the article that Atos doctors did not owe claimants their normal duty of care, the Standards and Fitness to Practise Directorate of the General Medical Council issued guidance that Atos assessments are indeed a doctor-patient interaction and that doctors have to make the interests of their patients their first concern at all times, closing the guidance with a reminder that "Being open and honest and acting with integrity is also an essential part of medical professionalism." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atos (all links can be checked and verified at webpage).[/quote

Edited January 22, 2018 by beefface

[mikem8634 10]

As has been pointed out this thread is not the place to debate the failings of ATOS.

Edited December 19, 2012 by mikem8634

[Tradescanthia 10]

beefface, go away and pray to God that you never need the help of the state due to a serious disability or terminal disease. You are just 'being clever', and a little bit annoying...... I would use different terminology, but, seeing as its Christmas and I've got my 'Goodwill to MOST men' hat on, I will be polite. Please stick to subjects you know something about......flower arranging perhaps ??

[Evei 10]

A T.V program, Youtube, some "criticism" and 43 complaints, not to mention an incredibly effective appeals mechanism, does not an entirely flawed system make and you have obviously done you're research!

 

I just think it is so sad that someone in genuine need has to go through a long appeal mechanism. It must be very frightening. It should be designed in a way that only a small number have the need to appeal as the assessment, the fact that so many people appeal and win surely show that the starting process is flawed in the first place.

 

I suppose the only positive is that it keeps people in made up jobs doing all the admin for the appeals process

[beefface 10]

beefface, go away and pray to God that you never need the help of the state due to a serious disability or terminal disease. You are just 'being clever', and a little bit annoying...... I would use different terminology, but, seeing as its Christmas and I've got my 'Goodwill to MOST men' hat on, I will be polite. Please stick to subjects you know something about......flower arranging perhaps ??[/quote

Edited January 22, 2018 by beefface

[jellytots10 10]

Can anyone who has had an ATOS interview how the interview paneel is made up and the program of the interview takes place.

 

All the advice I can offer is, to take all the evidence of your illness/condition with you. For example a letter from your specialist, your prescription and details and photos of any aids you nedd to make your life easier.

ATOS will then make a report which a "decision maker" for the job centre bases their decision on whether or not you are fit for work.

 

Dont forget they are not asking you to work an unreasonable job, just a job that is suitable for you. So for example some one who cannot walk is not necessarily being told they are fit to work as a brick layer but may be suited to an office job.

 

The fact is that being disabled does not make you automatically unfit for work !

[mikem8634 10]

Not going anywhere, or praying to a god I don't believe in, thanks for the compliment, the rest is just silly! Always avoid vapid, unquestioning consensualism.....it's bad for the brain. 'Done with this now

 

It is difficult when the evidence doesn't say what you want it to isn't it?

[Anglersvista 10]

Depends what you call evidence.

[mart 71]

What a strange world we live in where being declared 'unfit' for work is a positive outcome whereas being declared 'fit' for work is a negative outcome!

 

Such a naive view point there.

 

One cannot be accurately declared fit for work by an unqualified person using a fixed set of questions from the computer that are the same for each person regardless of the nature of their illness. Now that`s not hard to understand is it.

Edited December 20, 2012 by mart

[mikem8634 10]

Depends what you call evidence.

 

Post 46. I am more than happy to consider any counter evidence, of course, but perhaps it should be done in another thread?

[Anglersvista 10]

Post 46 isn't evidence, it's opinion and hearsay.