MPs condemn work capability test!
9th July 2012
MPs condemn work capability test! Get your MP to sign EDM 295 – Atos
Campaigning is having a huge impact and there is increasing condemnation of the Work Capability Assessment carried out by Atos. Winvisible has been working with John McDonnell MP to get MPs to support the movement to end the test. He has tabled an Early Day Motion which 47 MPs from England, Scotland, Wales and the North of Ireland have signed, so far,
Check the link below to see if your MP has signed. Contact them and ask them to sign if they haven’t. Circulate to family, friends, organisations, the media. . .
This is a useful way to get more people involved. Many will be heartened that campaigning is beginning to be reflected in Parliament. We can use this EDM to widen public support and get more professionals and professional associations to follow the BMA’s example and press for an end to the hated test. Last year, over 100 organisations, doctors and nurses signed a joint Open Letter calling on the BMJ Group and RCN to stop hosting Atos at their recruiting careers fairs. This year, Atos is not listed – it looks like we succeeded though we haven’t had confirmation yet!
The EDM also mentions Dow – the multinational now responsible for the Bhopal disaster which killed more than 25,000 people, left 150,000 with chronic health problems, and continues to cause severe disabilities through water contamination -- because, like Atos, it is an Olympic sponsor which many people are objecting to. They have been involved in bringing together opposition to both Atos’ and Dow’s sponsorships.
The motion reads as follows:
Early Day Motion 295 – Atos
Session: 2012-13
Date tabled: 28.06.2012
Primary sponsor: McDonnell, John
List of sponsors and signatories: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/295
That this House deplores that thousands of sick and disabled constituents are experiencing immense hardship after being deprived of benefits following a work capability assessment carried out by Atos Healthcare under a 100 million a year contract; notes that 40 per cent of appeals are successful but people wait up to six months for them to be heard; deplores that last year 1,100 claimants died while under compulsory work-related activity for benefit and that a number of those found fit for work and left without income have committed or attempted suicide; condemns the International Paralympic Committee's promotion of Atos as its top sponsor and the sponsorship of the Olympics by Dow Chemical and other corporations responsible for causing death and disability; welcomes the actions taken by disabled people, carers, bereaved relatives and organisations to end this brutality and uphold entitlement to benefits; and applauds the British Medical Association call for the work capability assessment to end immediately and to be replaced with a system that does not cause harm to some of the most vulnerable people in society.