ATOS KILLS - 73 PEOPLE EACH WEEK

INTERNATIONAL DISABLED PEOPLE'S DAY TO BE MARKED WITH 'NATIONAL DAY OF REMEMBRANCE FOR THOSE KILLED BY ATOS'
DISABLED PEOPLE AGAINST CUTS (DPAC) CAERDYDD PRESS RELEASE

Disabled campaigners have declared International Disabled People's Day a 'national day of remembrance for those killed by Atos' claiming government welfare reform is destroying lives. As part of a national day of action supported by disabled campaigning groups and almost thirty MPs, campaigners will gather at the statue of Aneurin Bevan, founder of the NHS, for a candelight vigil at 5 pm on Monday 3 December.
ATOS, the French IT company that carries out the controversial Work Capability Assessments for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has been the subject of widespread condemnation from disability charities and the British Medical Assocation who call for the assesments to be scrapped completely. The firm has been accused of target chasing for cutting the amount of people found eligible for benefits.Earlier this year a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary revealed the DWP requires ATOS to reject the benefit claims of 7 out of 8 disabled claimants without any reference to medical evidence.

A spokeswoman for Disabled People Against Cuts Cardiff said,

'ATOS make money implementing the UK Government’s cuts to social security. Last year they callously struck thousands of vulnerable and disabled people off the welfare roll with their bizarre “work capability assessments" that find cancer patients, heart transplant patients, the terminally ill, the mortally sick - even someone in a coma ‘fit for work'.
This government has sent too many of us to an early grave, and forced thousands of others to spend their last living days penniless and starving, fearful of losing the roof over their head. There is no greater symbol of everything wrong with this country than what is being done to kick the crutches away from the poor, the disabled and the dying.

Our campaign is part of a national campaign that goes by the name "Atos Kills". This is based on well-documented evidence that approximately 32 disabled people a week died last year after their Atos Work Capability Assessments deemed them "fit to work" and stopped benefits. This year the figure may have risen to 73 deaths per week including suicides'

Four Welsh MPs, Martin Caton, Anne Clwyd, Jonathan Edwards and Albert Owen, have signed an early day motion in support of the day of remembrance stating,

'That this House wishes to record the case of Mr Brian McArdle who, having suffered a blood clot on his brain, was left paralysed on one side, unable to speak properly and blind in one eye and yet was summoned to an Atos work capacity assessment, before which he suffered a further stroke and was eventually informed he was to lose his disability benefits; notes with sadness that Mr McArdle died from a heart attack the day after his benefits were stopped and that his 13 year old son Kieran wrote to Atos to tell the company that their assessments `are killing genuine people like my dad'; and appreciates why disability campaigners like Susan Archibald are calling for the suspension of Atos assessments, and why Jim Moore and other campaigners are calling for 3 December to be a day of remembrance for all Atos victims'
...
According to an FOI (Freedom of Information) response publicised by the Daily Mail journalist Sonia Poulton on October 7, the current weekly average Atos/DWP death toll of people found fit for work after an ESA work capability assessment now stands at 73 people per week.

A FOI in April revealed in 2011 an average of 32 dying a week after failing test for new incapacity benefit. More than a thousand ­sickness benefit claimants died last year after being told to get a job.
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/04/32-die-a-week-after-failing-in.html

There have been numerous horror stories in the media of people with terminal illnesses (in one infamous case even someone in a coma) being declared fit for work by ATOS and having their benefits cut.

Recent Stories:

'A GRIEVING boy of 13 has accused Atos of killing his disabled dad. Kieran McArdle told the Daily Record in a harrowing letter how his father Brian, 57, collapsed and died the day after his disability benefits were stopped. He had been assessed by Atos and deemed “fit for work”'

http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/11/01/atos-benefits-bullies-killed-my-sick-dad-says-devastated-kieran-mcardle-13/

'A cancer sufferer, who had her benefits cut by government officials who said she was fit to work, has died'.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19433535

'I sought this debate in order to raise the case of one of my constituents, Colin Traynor, who was epileptic. He was assessed as fit for work, yet died less than four months later' (Michael Meacher MP)