The spearhead for implementing a fake test to sick & disabled people which then finds them fit to work so their benfits can be cut is run by ATOS, a for profit corporation using many of the same practices used in US private healthcare to deny patients treatment, often leading to patients’ deaths. In the US it is to raise revenue by declining costly treatment, here it is used to decline benefits to save the treasury money and move the remaining public funds into private hands as corporations get contracts to then force these people into workfare where their minimum wage will effectively be under £2 an hour. This coming week is a week for action against Atos, details here. Meanwhile Job Centre whistleblower has told the Guardian about new guidance on how to deal with suicidal claimants (whom they call customers, as life or death is a choice just like shopping)-
Staff working for jobcentres and other Department for Work and Pensions contractors have been given guidelines on how to deal with suicide threats from claimants as the squeeze on benefits takes hold.
A document sent to jobcentre staff in April details what it calls a “new policy for all DWP businesses to help them manage suicide and self-harm declarations from customers”.
The guidelines include a “six-point plan” for staff to follow which says: “Some customers may say they intend to self-harm or kill themselves as a threat or a tactic to ‘persuade’, others will mean it. It is very hard to distinguish between the two … For this reason, all declarations must be taken seriously.”
The internal document was sent to the Guardian by a senior jobcentre employee who has worked for the DWP for more than 20 years. It was accompanied by a letter from the source that said: “Absolutely nobody has ever seen this guidance before, leading staff to believe it has been put together ahead of the incapacity benefit and disability living allowance cuts.”
The employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “We were a bit shocked. Are we preparing ourselves to be like the Samaritans? The fact that we’ve dealt with the public for so many years without such guidance has made people feel a bit fearful about what’s coming.”
via Jobcentre staff ‘sent guidelines on how to deal with claimants’ suicide threats’ | Society | The Guardian.
