Out of the frying pan and into the fire

Out of the frying pan and into the fire – there’s no better expression that comes to mind as Maximus, a US-based, for-profit health services firm, is set to take over a government contract to determine whether disabled people are “fit to work” and are subsequently stripped of their benefits entitlements.

 
Unite will support Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) in a national day of action against the coalition government’s Work Capability Assessments (WCA) on Monday March 2.

 
The action starts following the day after Maximus is put in charge, following previous contractor Atos’ dismal failure in its role conducting the assessments, which was brought to light by campaigners and whistle blowers up and down the country.

 
Unite argues that no matter which private, profit-driven firm takes over the contract, the results will be the same, or even worse, because the system itself is broken.

 
Tick-box regime

 
The brutal tick-box WCA regime, designed for the express purpose of taking people off benefits, was scaled up by the Department of Work and Pensions as the Tory-led coalition government took over in 2010.

 
It replaces a previous system in which disabled people were granted Incapacity Benefit largely based on the opinion of the claimant’s general practitioner.

 
The WCA system, however, has since seen hundreds of thousands of disabled people being put through devastating hardship.
Numerous cases have been reported of people with long-term illnesses, such as Parkinson’s and cancer, being told that they were fit for work.

 
A government study in 2012 found that one half of people found fit to work remained without employment or income. And a 2013 report found that of those found “fit to work” and had their benefits cut, 40 per cent of appeals cases were upheld. Since Atos took over, 600,000 appeals have been lodged, costing the taxpayer £60m a year.

 
Perhaps most damning of all, the government’s own figures have shown that between 2010 and 2011, just as the WCA was ramped up, more than 10,000 sick and disabled people died six weeks after their assessments.

 
Degrading policy

 
Unite national officer for equalities Siobhan Endean emphasised the importance of scrapping Work Capability Assessments altogether.

 
“The dreaded Work Capability Assessment costs lives,” she said. “We supported disabled people in the campaign to convince ATOS to withdraw from the WCA contract, we will continue to support disabled people in the campaign against the Maximus until the government scraps the Work Capability Assessment and starts treating disabled people with dignity and justice.”

 
Endean added that little can be expected to change once Maximus takes over.

 
“Maximus is taking over the WCA contract worth £500m, meanwhile little has changed,” she explained. “Maximus will be based in the same inaccessible buildings and the fundamental flaws of the assessment remain the same. At the heart of these assessments is the Tory government’s drive to take people off benefits with a brutal and humiliating tick-box regime.”

 
And Maximus itself has a questionable history in America. The health services provider in charge of taking over government contracts has been dogged by lawsuits and public criticism in the last two decades.

 
Endean said that action is needed now more than ever before.

 
“We are calling on this government to stop this degrading policy and introduce a fairer transparent single assessment, operated within the public sector that restores dignity to the sick and disabled,” she said.

 
Want to join Unite in DPAC’s national day of action? Find an event near you here.