- In the undercover film
- the trainer tells trainee assessors:
- “If it’s more than
- twelve or thirteen percent eligible
- you will be fed back
- ‘your rate is too high.’
- That’s what we’re being told.”
- During assesments
- company health professionals
- award claimants points,
- reflecting the apparent severity
- of their condition,
- with information gathered
- through a set of questions
- led by a computer.
- “We talk about mobilising,
- which means
- being able to transfer
- from point A
- to point B
- either by
- walking or
- walking with aids
- which is
- crutches
- walking sticks
- Zimmer frame
- or wheelchair. So
- if someone has
- no legs
- but they have
- good hands
- they can sit
- and propel a wheelchair,
- they don’t score anything.
- This is one of the toughest changes.
- Recently I had somebody
- with prostate cancer, but
- of course that’s not traditionally
- treated with chemotherapy. So
- I gave him no points.
- I couldn’t
- do anything else.
- Same
- with breast cancer.
- The hormonal treatment doesn’t count. So
- no points.
- I felt very uncomfortable doing it.
- I didn’t
- like doing it.
- But I had no way of scoring him.”
- The data is typed into a computer.
- Patients who score 15 points
- are likely to be found eligible for support.
- Patients who score below
- are not.
- “It’s terrible sometimes.
- People having problems.
- Both hips, both knees, but
- good hands.
- Terrible.
- You know
- we talk about
- modern work adaptations
- but we know how it looks
- from the other side.
- There’s no jobs
- for healthy people,
- normal people.
- We have to think this way.
- Sometimes you feel awful.
- You can’t do anything
- for people.
- You can’t feel sorry
- and give them the money
- just because you feel
- sorry.
- You’ll go on a targeted audit.”
The Guardian, 27/07/2012, Atos assessors told to disability benefit approvals low, film suggests