The union is supporting the national day of action on Wednesday organised by disability campaign groups Disabled People Against the Cuts and Black Triangle. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "It is a scandal that the likes of Atos are profiting from this government's cold and calculating assault on sick and disabled people. The demeaning tests should be scrapped and the work to provide the kind of professional and caring support that disabled people need and deserve should be brought back in-house."
“The current method of Work Capacity Assessment run by ATOS is inhumane , not fit for purpose and should be scrapped and replaced by a system that truly supports people with long term health problems to get back into suitable employment when their health permits, or enables them to claim appropriate benefits to which they are entitled. GPs should be asked to provide information about their patients to support their claims and such information should be taken seriously. This used to happen and was stopped under the new Work Capacity Assessment system. It’s important that the information that GPs have about their patients should be made available to help patients making claims.”
NHA Party co-leader Dr Richard Taylor said: "ATOS – a nightmare. I had correspondence with the then relevant minister during the last parliament and obtained a promise that ATOS would ensure that available medical evidence from the client’s GP or consultant would always be taken into account in assessments for fitness. I was concerned because i'd had plenty of examples where this was readily available and yet had never even been looked at. I can remember patients awaiting cardiac surgery who had been pronounced as fit because ATOS had not bothered to find even this out. So it's imperative that existing medical evidence must be taken into account".
Kate Green MP, Labour's Shadow Work and Pensions Minister, commenting on the Work Capability Assessment contract and Atos, said: "It is becoming increasingly clear that disabled people are being badly let down by Atos which is why Labour has called on the Government to sack them with immediate effect. But it is also clear that problems with the Work Capability Assessment go much deeper. We need fundamental reform of the assessment process so that disabled people have confidence that the system is fair and to ensure they receive the help they need to enter work when they can."
