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This website provides information on how Atos runs its business, extracts from the Contract between the DWP and Atos including the MEDICAL CONDITIONS that mean a face to face medical assessment is not always necessary, ASSESSMENTS AND POINTS, the breaches of Contract that occurred in my case, my unsound medical report and the correspondence showing how difficult it is to obtain justice or advice.
This program was broadcast on BBC2 Monday 30 July 2012 at 20:30.
Reporter: Declan Lawn
Executive Producer: Marcus Ryder
Produced and Directed By: Kate Ansell and Julia Berg
Editor: Tom Giles
These are comments on the contents of extracts from a transcript of this television program.
The Atos assessment tests, Unum and Atos were the major contributors to how the tests were implemented, are wrongly victimising those who deserve support the most.
Panorama investigates the government's plans to end the so-called 'sick note culture' and their attempts to get millions of people off disability benefits and into work. In Britain's modern welfare state, millions are being paid to private companies to assess sick and disabled claimants but is the system working? Or are new tests wrongly victimising those who deserve support the most?
Reporter:
This man is about to have a work capability assessment to see if he can stay on disability benefits or is fit for work.
Atos Assessor 1:
What have they found problems with your health?
Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
I have COPD emphysema. Emphysema.
Reporter:
More than two million claimants have to take this test. It's aim to weed out bogus claimants and get those who can work back into employment. But has it gone too far.
Former DWP Advisor (Professor Paul Gregg):
I think the people who are generally unwell, have not done anything wrong in their life have to be put through this system is just despicable.
Reporter:
The Government pays over a hundred million pounds a year to French company Atos Healthcare to run the system. Yet thousands of disabled people up and down the country say it is pushing them to the brink.
Hospital Welfare Team Advisor:
Our clients have actually taken several overdoses and the assessor said to them why arn't you dead.
Reporter:
And even the Government's trouble shooter thinks it needs to change.
Independent DWP Advisor (Professor Malcolm Harrington):
There will be people who will suffer and I don't like that.
The Employment Minister says it is not a financial exercise.
Reporter:
The welfare state is expensive. Thirteen billion pounds of our taxes are spent on incapacity benefit. Now the Government says the system needs to be tightened up and have introduced the Welfare Reform Act to do just that.
Prime Minister Cameron (25 June 2012):
Almost one pound in every three spent by the Government is spent on welfare.
We need to have a welfare system that the country can properly afford.
Reporter:
Disability benefits are one of the areas being targeted. Nearly seven percent of the working age population in the UK claim benefits because they are too ill to work. Some are simply lying. The man in the white T-shirt told benefit officials he could not walk without a stick. But he was capable of attacking passers by and the police.
Then there is the man who claimed disability benefits but still managed to run the London Marathon. Just last week a lottery millionaire was jailed for benefit fraud. But the outright cheats are a small minority. Less than half a percent of incapacity benefit claims are thought to be fraudulent.
The real issue according to Government is not the scammers but those who may be fit enough to work if given help. Critics say it is about saving ten billion in benefits payments. The Government's man in charge denies that.
Employment Minister (Chris Grayling MP):
It is not a financial exercise. It is about saying it is huge waste of life for so many people to be left at home on benefits doing nothing. No one is ever actually asked the question, do you have the potential to return to work. And I very passionately believe that if we could help people back into work they are much better off than they are if left stranded at home on benefits for the rest of their lives.
Reporter:
It was the last Labour Government which began to reform the old incapacity benefit system in 2008. In the new benefit, called Employment Support Allowance, claimants would be tested to see whether any of them could come off the benefit and do some sort of work. The test was called the Work Capability Assessment.
The current Government picked up the ball and kept running. They enhanced the test and now everyone who is on benefit because they are too ill to work has to be assessed.
Four years since the assessments introduction, a third of those who were claiming incapacity benefit have been found fit for work. But is it just weeding out the undeserving. I want to meet the people at the sharp end. Chris Davis is one of them.
Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
Can we stop for a minute?
Reporter:
Sure. Are you OK?
Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
Yes, yes.
Reporter:
Chris worked all his life in the steel industry and then as a lorry driver.
Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
I enjoyed the job. It was long hours, early morning starts but I enjoyed it.
Reporter:
But in 2009 he became seriously ill with a chest infection that would not go away. It turned out to be the chronic lung disease emphysema. One morning his breathing was so laboured he was rushed to hospital.
Wife of Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
One of the doctors called us into the office and she told me that he had two days to live and she said I would advise you to go home, look through all your holiday snaps and just remember all the good times and prepare for his funeral.
Reporter:
Chris pulled through but returning to work was out of the question. He was assessed, found unfit for work and given Employment Support Allowance of just under ninety pounds a week. He settled into a life coping with his illness. For Chris just climbing the stairs can be a challenge.
Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
I can't walk far, fifty metres before I have to stop. I have to lean against something, catch me breath.
Reporter:
Last year he was called in for another Work Capability Assessment. It is a points based system. The more points you get the less able you are to work. You need fifteen points or more to keep your benefits.
Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
In May I received a letter saying I hadn't passed the medical assessment and I was fit for work. I was shocked because there was no way I could work, not physically and according to my doctors I was unfit for work.
Reporter:
The assessment was clear. Chris received no points. He was fit for work.
Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
And they turned round and said they were stopping my benefits all together. I thought what are we going to do.
Reporter:
He could still claim Jobseekers Allowance but only if he is well enough to actively seek work. Some of the groups running the Government's work programme have told Panorama many of the people they are asked to deal with are clearly unfit for work. Chris decided to appeal and went to a Tribunal.
Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
It did cause me a lot of stress because I was thinking if I go to this Tribunal and lose that I would not get any money at all. I would not be able to work.
Reporter:
Chris won. His benefits were restored and backdated. His case is far from unique.
The system is badly flawed. The Atos process and the way Atos gathers evidence and the quality of the Atos supplied information for the DWP decision making is badly wrong.
One hundred and seventy six thousand (176,000) go to appeals every year and over a third are successful.
The Employment Minister does not seem understand why there are so many appeals and why so many are successful. Perhaps his vision can be described as Nelsonian. He sees only that which he wishes to see.
Reporter:
More than one hundred and seventy six thousand cases go to appeal tribunals every year costing the taxpayer a further fifty million pounds. The most recent Government figures suggest on average about thirty percent of those cases are being overturned. Welfare rights advisor Neil Bateman says his success rate is much higher.
Welfare Rights Advisor (Neil Bateman):
I think I have won all of them so far and other advisors are getting very similar success rates eighty ninety percent with experienced advisors is quite common which is really ridiculous. We are getting such a fantastic success rate.
Reporter:
What does it tell you about the system?
Welfare Rights Advisor (Neil Bateman):
It tells you that the system is badly flawed, that the assessment process, the way they gather the evidence and the quality of the decision making is badly wrong.
Reporter:
If you have roughly one hundred and seventy six thousand appeals a year and even by your own figures a third of them are successful. That can't be right can it?
Employment Minister (Chris Grayling MP):
Well I think you have to look at why the appeals are successful. I wish the judges sometimes looked beyond the first impression and thought is it really the case that these people could not return to any form of work.
Reporter:
All over Britain we have been hearing from people who are appealing.
Claiment 2 (Diane, age 28, location Glasgow):
I have recently been diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis which is a progressive condition causing constant joint pain.
Claiment 3 (Mark, age 39, location Edinburgh):
I used to be a freelance photographer. However I felt a severe case of depression for which I am receiving a very high dosage of medication.
Reporter:
The decision about whether someone is fit to work will be taken by officials at the Department for Work and Pensions.
A significant factor in making that decision will be the initial assessment carried out by Atos Healthcare which is a private company.
It is this initial test which has come in for huge criticism from hundreds of thousands of people up and down the country and the advisors who are helping them overturn the decisions made.
Welfare Rights Advisor (Neil Bateman):
They will ask you things like, can you move an empty cardboard box and that is because one of the activities is your ability to reach and move things around. But I can't think of a job that involves moving empty cardboard boxes.
Reporter:
The Government admits that there is room for improvement. Two years ago they appointed Professor Malcolm Harrington to independently review the system. He believes the test on its own has serious limitations.
Independent DWP Advisor (Professor Malcolm Harrington):
If you rely entirely upon the questionnaire, the computer program, yes, it wont work. And I think it has now been shown not too work.
You have to involve human beings, looking at all the information that is available because they are dealing with human beings.
It is strange that many Atos doctors have difficulties with the English language and especially with English idioms which are frequently used by people in pain.
Neither the DWP not Atos will provide a list of their doctors and nurses, where they qualified and their specialisms.
As the adjudication by the ASA on the 4 April 2012 put it "We noted that Atos had not provided evidence to show that each year it processed over 1.2 million referrals for medical advice and completed over 800,000 face-to-face medical assessments, or that it had over 1700 healthcare professionals. We therefore considered that the claims had not been substantiated and concluded the [Atos] ad was misleading."
Reporter:
We've also spoken to five people who have carried out the test. Like all Atos Healthcare assessors they are medically qualified. Most were afraid to go on the record because they had signed confidentiality agreements. One gave us permission to use their statement and told us the system is too rigid.
Atos Assessor 1:
There are people you like to be able to award ESA to and you can't and if you are doing absolutely honestly they just don't get the points. And then you know that is it. They are stuffed.
Reporter:
We have decided to follow two people going through the assessment process. This is Marie Aldridge from Hertfordshire. She is twenty one and has a condition called fibromyalgia which means her joints can easily dislocate.
Claiment 4 (Marie Aldridge, location Hertfordshire):
I have been working since I have left school when I was sixteen. I have had various jobs mainly customer service / call centre type thing. But I have lost quite a few of them down to my fibromyalgia and though I gave in and applied for ESA.
Reporter:
This will be Marie's first ESA assessment and she has agreed for it to be secretly filmed.
Atos Assessor 2 (Marie):
And lift the arms above the body... And just to put them back to the neck. Then we try and keep them straight in front.
Reporter:
On the same day in North Wales. Chris Davies is attending his third assessment despite previously winning an appeal which made it clear he was not fit for work.
Atos Assessor 3 (Chris):
Put your left leg as high as you can. And bend forward as far as you can reach. Thank you.
Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
Heavy sustained coughing (throaty).
Reporter:
Will these assessments help reveal why some disabled people are being denied benefit?
Atos Assessor 3 (Chris):
It seems to me clear today.
Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
That's the trouble with it. Every time I take it to the doctors they say it's clear.
Reporter:
This doctor doesn't ask him for more detail about his breathing or for other medical evidence but then that's not his job. He is here to conduct the assessment as it has been designed and he follows procedures properly. But it is very different from how Chris's own doctors monitor his condition.
Claiment 1 (Chris Davis, wife Aileen):
You can't tell by listening to it. The consultant always, every time I go to see him says go and have an xray and then he takes blood samples as well.
Reporter:
Marie's assessment like Chris's takes twenty minutes.
Atos Assessor 2 (Marie):
And then you make a fist as well.
Atos assessors see eight (8) a day even if impossible to do. My Atos assessment is first hand evidence that my Atos assessor made up the fictional report that Atos supplied to the DWP Decision Maker. This defamation by libel by Atos resulted in my being denied placement in the Support Group.
Reporter:
Atos insiders told us they are often pressed for time because of the amount of paperwork they have to do for each examination.
Atos Insider 1:
We are under pressure to see eight people a day even if it is impossible to do. I'd like to think the quality of my work is very consistent but the time pressure does not help and working for Atos is one of the least popular things for healthcare professionals. It is being pressurized and being put on performance reviews.
Reporter:
We wanted to ask Atos whether assessors had enough time to consider all relevant information. They refused to be interviewed. But told us their staff carry out thousands of assessments every month in accordance with the detailed guidelines set by the Department for Work and Pensions ... Any serious suggestion that our work is falling short of the high standards we set ourselves ... is investigated as a matter of course.
The Atos assessment is not fit for purpose.
Reporter:
So after two years what does the Government's Independent Reviewer think of the assessment?
Independent DWP Advisor (Professor Malcolm Harrington):
It is better than it was.
Reporter:
Is it fit for purpose?
Independent DWP Advisor (Professor Malcolm Harrington):
If it is properly done along the recommendations that I have made it will be fit for purpose.
Reporter:
But do you believe it is fit for purpose right across the country?
Independent DWP Advisor (Professor Malcolm Harrington):
Right across the country? No. It is patchy. I have to say that. There will be people who because we are in this interim period who will suffer. And I don't like that.
NHS costs are increased as the NHS picks up the costs of the failures by Atos and Atos assessors.
In poor areas the additional costs to the NHS are disproportionately higher then in more affluent areas. Atos failures are hurting the poorest. Those NHS services that are most pressed are those who have to deal with the failures of Atos.
Reporter:
Some GPs believe they are left to pick up the pieces when patients fail assessments.
GP (Dr Chris Johnstone, Northcroft Medical Centre, Paisley):
I think people who come to me very very distressed having been on long term benefits for some time, with quite clear, long term unresolvable physical problems whereby they are going for cursory examinations very rapidly and having previously passed quite happily are now failing these tests and are now being deemed fit for work when they are clearly not.
Reporter:
Far from saving money Dr Johnstone says the tests are adding to NHS costs in poor areas.
GP (Dr Chris Johnstone, Northcroft Medical Centre, Paisley):
We are busy at the best of times and we now are having to fit in more people whose appointments are more for their benefits than they are for their health.
Every week between January and August 2011 an average of thirty two people who the Department for Work and Pensions ruled could be helped back to work died.
Reporter:
The big question of course is not whether the assessment process is failing some sick and disabled people but the consequences for some of those people when the decision is wrong. Sometimes it can be financially crippling, sometimes psychologically distressing.
Across the country we have spoken to some families who say the consequences for their loved ones have been much much worse.
The Hills have always been a close family living near each other in their Derbyshire village. But one person is missing from this picture. Stephen Hill worked as a sandwich delivery man but he had been having problems with his health.
Brother of Claiment 6 (Stephen Hill, wife Denise, Derbyshire):
He always put it down because his early starts for work and getting up at four o'clock and that is why he was always tired and struggling and then when he left work and he was still tired and he was still struggling. That is when we first knew.
Reporter:
Steve was referred for tests on his heart. He stopped work and applied for ESA. At his first Work Capability Assessment in 2010, wife Denise was by his side. What happened at that first assessment?
Wife of Claiment 6 (Stephen Hill, wife Denise, Derbyshire):
She checked him out. She did his blood pressure. She did his heart. And she says to see a doctor or someone else.
Reporter:
Steve saw his consultant shortly afterwards. Within days he was diagnosed with heart failure. Then his ESA results arrived. Remember it was the Atos assessor who told Steve to seek urgent medical help. He was passed fit for work. How did you both feel when you found out that he had failed?
Wife of Claiment 6 (Stephen Hill, wife Denise, Derbyshire):
Shocked. Shocked. Because of what she said and like I said to him you got to appeal now because you are not very well. You got to.
Reporter:
Steve won his appeal. But the relief was short lived. Within weeks he was called back for another assessment. The process was starting again.
Wife of Claiment 6 (Stephen Hill, wife Denise, Derbyshire):
He got a letter for another medical and I could not believe it. He got to go to a medical when he is waiting for a heart operation. How mad is that?
Reporter:
According to Denise the second assessor seemed more interested in Steve's knee than in anything else.
Wife of Claiment 6 (Stephen Hill, wife Denise, Derbyshire):
I said what about his heart. And she just turned around and said we are not here to talk about his heart today, we are here to talk about his knee. And his heart! What! What! Why! Why! Well that is the main thing, knee were naught besides his heart.
Reporter:
Once again Steve got zero points. In the report the assessor said significant disability due to cardiovascular problems seems unlikely. What effect did that second assessment have on him?
Brother of Claiment 6 (Stephen Hill, wife Denise, Derbyshire):
It was starting to get to him then. He felt belittled. He believed doctors are right because they are medical, they are professionals. I think he started thinking well I must be OK. Now I must be fit for work if they are telling me I am. And then took Hoover out and hoovered car out and as he is taking Hoover back into house that is when he collapsed and had his heart attack and died.
Reporter:
Steven Hill died just thirty nine days after being found fit for work.
Brother of Claiment 6 (Stephen Hill, wife Denise, Derbyshire):
I have lost my best friend. (Tears) A person I could talk to, tell me problems.
Wife of Claiment 6 (Stephen Hill, wife Denise, Derbyshire):
See we were having to keep going and signing on and going to doctor's. He shouldn't have been doing all that. He should been here relaxing, waiting for his operation not worrying about getting notes for this and notes for that.
Reporter:
Between January and August last year an average of thirty two people who the Department for Work and Pensions ruled could be helped back to work died every week.
Claiment 7 (Chris, age 25, location Manchester):
I have a progressive disease. My dad died of it three years ago. No points! Fit for work!
The DWP, despite Government commitments for openness and transparency redact major parts of the Contract. As Atos is a near monopoly supplier the claim for commercial confidentiality is a difficult one to sustain.
The Government and companies are very good at avoiding creating evidence that could be used at a later date for objectives that might not stand up to scrutiny of the public.
The Minister explicitly stated "financial targets". Targets can be expressed in many ways. Most management targets in most companies, expecially at the higher levels, are not expressed in explicit terms but in generalities. These generalities would be expanded on in face to face meetings and mentor conversations where, of course, no minutes are taken.
As the Minister put it "no targets anywhere in the system".
Multiple Atos trainers of assessors and Atos assessors themselves believe there are targets for numbers allowed into the Support Group. The Atos mentor of the Atos assessors polices this target. Is it credible that these Atos people in multiple Atos sites decide to enforce the same target independently? No it is not credible.
As the ASA ruled above, Atos have been found to mislead. My case suggests Atos have a strict policy to delete as much information as possible, as soon as possible.
Reporter:
Atos Healthcare's Government contract is worth a billion pounds and runs until twenty fifteen. But much of it is shrouded in mystery. We tried to get hold of the details of that Contract but all they would give us was a redacted version. They said it was commercially confidential.
But some people now fear that the reason so many sick and disabled people are failing the test is because Atos is working to targets. Both Atos and the Government strenuously deny any targets exist.
Employment Minister (Chris Grayling MP):
But let us be absolutely clear. I do not have. We do not have a financial target for re-assessment of people on incapacity benefit or for the level of new applications for ESA which are successful. Absolutely, categorically, unequivocally there is no financial target.
Reporter:
Does Atos have targets!
Employment Minister (Chris Grayling MP):
No. They dont. There are no targets anywhere in the system for numbers of people to move onto or off benefits.
Reporter:
There may be no targets but there are forecasts showing how many people the DWP expect to come off benefits and Atos insiders confirm numbers do seem to matter. If it accepted someone is too sick or too disabled to work they are put into something called Support Group with full benefits of ninety six pounds a week. Three insiders told us, there is internal pressure to avoid putting too many people in that group.
Atos Assessor 1:
If you were Support Grouping more than whatever the average is, about twenty percent, you will be notified by your mentor. And if you are castigating doctors, nurses, physios for straying away from the average that kind of does have the feeling that there are indeed targets.
Reporter:
Moving people off disability benefits when they have been living on them for years isn't easy. The Government's answer is a work programme which includes something called the Work Related Activity Group. It is for those who with support may be able to work again. One of its architects was Professor Paul Gregg.
Former DWP Advisor (Professor Paul Gregg):
There are a lot of people who want to work. The disability community as a whole has been very strong and vocal in saying disabled people shouldn't be shut out of the world of work. So ESA is hoping to move quite a few people off of disability rated benefits back into work.
Reporter:
He is concerned people may be being wrongly put into the Work Related Group.
Former DWP Advisor (Professor Paul Gregg):
There is a question mark in the sense of are there people who are inappropriately being put into this kind of programme who really there is no serious hope or prospect of moving into work.
Reporter:
Sharon Thompson suffers from a degenerative disease of the spine, as well as severe osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. She is on morphine to ease the pain.
Claiment 8 (Sharon Thompson, husband Simon):
A lot of people say you have good days and bad days. I don't know because never had good day. I was always active. I mean I was a security officer on building sites.
Reporter:
Sharon's husband is now her full time carer.
Husband of Claiment 8 (Sharon Thompson, husband Simon):
Going back nobody ever imagines how much your life could change in short space of time.
Reporter:
After her ESA assessment, Sharon was put in the Work Related Activity Group. What did you think when that decision was made?
Claiment 8 (Sharon Thompson, husband Simon):
I think I was gob smacked more than anything. It wasn't as if I didn't want to work but what work can they get me. When I go to toilet, my husband has to help me to pull, you know, everything down and all me back up. You know what I mean. What job can they get me with somebody like doing that all!
Reporter:
There are schemes which help pay for specialist support in the work place. But Sharon felt that was unrealistic. She appealed and won. Then she was put in the Work Related Group again. She appealed again and won again. It must seem like a bit of a never ending nightmare to you?
Claiment 8 (Sharon Thompson, husband Simon):
Oh terrible because it never goes away. Your mind! Every week you are waiting for another form to come through.
The Minister is never clear on the changes between the "old" system and the "new" system.
Reporter:
We have had people who have had multiple appeals and multiple assessments. That can't be right, can it?
Employment Minister (Chris Grayling MP):
It has been apparent to me in the last few months that we were calling people back too regularly. And I have instructed the officials who operate the system to actually make sure we leave a much more sensible interval between the two. What you can't do though is simply say to people, go away and we won't talk to you again. This was the problem with the old system.
Reporter:
Since ESA was introduced a least seven thousand people have, like Sharon, appealed successfully and been moved into the Support Group where it is accepted they are unlikely to work again.
The DWP has little interest in the impact the Atos failures are having on people's lives.
Former DWP Advisor (Professor Paul Gregg):
There is a perception within DWP that there are large amounts of people on disability benefits who just shouldn't be there. What they are doing is trying to find them and weed them out. What I feel has not been done enough is to worry about the impact it is having on people's lives going through that process.
Claiment 9 (Sue, age 57, location Wiltshire):
Last year because of the terrible pain and chronic fatigue. I suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. I had to give up work and was medically retired. Assessment result work related activity.
Claiment 10 (Gary, age 52, location Luton):
I used to work in IT but I had to give it up because of multiple sclerosis. Now I need help getting out of bed. Assessment result work related activity.
Assessor assessment fail with mental health conditions.
Reporter:
Dealing with someone's physical disabilities is one thing but what if they have mental health problems.
Well that is something they know all about here at the Maudsley Hospital in South London. In fact they say they are picking up the tab for a system that has gone badly wrong.
Andy King has bipolar disorder. He was already feeling unwell when told he had to be re-assessed for ESA.
Claiment 11 (Andy King, location London):
This was quite a blow actually. I thought perhaps I might lose a big part of my benefit and so that kind of was a body blow and that's what resulted partially in me being admitted to the Maudsley in mid November.
Reporter:
Andy was catatonic and unable to speak.
Claiment 11 (Andy King, location London):
I was told whilst I was actually in the Maudsley that they had assessed me and put me in the Work Related Activity Group round about December.
Reporter:
So you were in hospital?
Claiment 11 (Andy King, location London):
Yes. I was actually sectioned under the Mental Health Act and they put me in the Work Related Activity Group.
Reporter:
The Maudsley has a dedicated Welfare Team. They appealed the result and won. They say they are now overwhelmed in helping people like Andy fight wrong decisions. That is quite apart from the cost of treating people who feel they have been driven to the brink by dealing with the ESA system.
Hospital Welfare Team Advisor:
We are having to call upon the resources of the doctors and nurses and social workers to put everything all together to send off.
Reporter:
This is all work you would not have done before.
Hospital Welfare Team Advisor:
We would not have done it before. No.
Reporter:
Just going through the assessment can be harrowing for many people with mental illness.
Hospital Welfare Team Advisor:
We had a lady. She actually had her care coordinator with her. They asked her many different things about her illness. Our client had actually taken several overdoses. And the assessor said to them why arn't you dead.
Reporter:
Why arn't you dead?
Hospital Welfare Team Advisor:
Why arn't you dead? So the client became very distraught at that point. Her care coordinator said stop the interview.
Reporter:
This is a lady with serious mental health problems.
Hospital Welfare Team Advisor:
Serious mental health issues. Yes. And the assessor said that if they stopped the interview the client would lose their benefit straight away.
More training seems to be the press release mantra year after year after year. In my case I was assessed in 2009. I was in the second wave, not in the initial groups.
How much more are Atos spending on training? Not known.
How much are Atos spending on re-training? Not known.
How effective is Atos training, apart from enforcing the target numbers allowed into the Support Group? Not known.
Reporter:
We asked Atos about the impact assessments had on the people we had met for this film. They told us, we are clearly very aware that these assessments can be stressful for those involved ... and we go to great lengths to ensure that those assessed are treated both professionally and sympathetically.
The Government says the system is being improved. Atos assessors are being retrained. And staff at the DWP will rely less heavily in future on Atos assessments alone. But there is someway to go according to the man who recommended that training.
Independent DWP Advisor (Professor Malcolm Harrington):
There are certainly areas where it is still not working and yes I am sorry that there are still people going through the system which I think still needs improvement and the improvements haven't reached their neck of the woods or it has not been implemented appropriately by these people because they have not finished their training.
The Atos assessment process that judges people fit for work is not fit for purpose.
Reporter:
The Government says despite the difficulties it is, in the end, for the good of people who are sick and disabled.
Employment Minister (Chris Grayling MP):
There are people who don't believe they can work any more, don't believe that they have any options to return to the work place. And we are pushing them through something that David Cameron once described as tough love. Because we believe many of them can make a return to the work place.
Reporter:
Remember Marie Aldrich her assessment results are in. She has been placed in the Work Related Activity Group. Marie is delighted and hopes she will now get the kind of support she needs to get back into work.
Chris Davies had his assessment the same day but he is still anxiously waiting for a result. Last week he started coughing blood and is back in hospital.
Meanwhile up and down the country tens of thousands of people are still struggling with a system they believe is at best frustrating and at worst seriously damaging to their health.
Former DWP Advisor (Professor Paul Gregg):
For patients it is awful. I think the people who are genuinely unwell have not done anything wrong in their lives have to be put through the system is just despicable.
Reporter:
The question now is whether the assessment process judging them fit for work is itself fit for purpose.