Parasites...

Apparently, we live in a society beset by a plague of scroungers.

We’ve all heard about them (or at least read about them in the Daily Hate, excuse me, Mail). We’re regularly told that they’re the real reason the Irish and British economies are on their knees. Oh yes, everywhere you turn, there they are; out sky-diving and doing heavy-lifting when they’re supposed to be off on the sick.

Disappointingly, the scroungers who are scamming billions by playing casino games with people’s pensions are not the ones our media is holding up to scrutiny; it’s so much easier after all to point the finger further down the foodchain (apart that is from soft, bald, pink paragon of banking opprobrium Stephen Hester of RBS). 

Now, if we could only find a way of generating money for our friends in the private sector while at the same time making an example of these workshy fraudsters (or cutting the safety net out from under an already marginalised section of society; depending on your point of view), then we’d have a win-win situation.

And that indeed is what we have in caring, sharing Cameron’s Big British Society. A private company called Atos Healthcare – which was founded as a subsidiary of public sector private parasite Atos Origin in 2007 – has been responsible for throwing sick people off benefits since 2005.

In November 2011, it was awarded a three-year extension on this contract which is apparently worth £300m. (That’s just what it’s costing the taxpayer; we don’t what price society will be paying as yet.)

Atos Healthcare is one of those organisations that just didn’t exist before ‘free market’ fuckwittery started gaining traction in Whitehall. ‘Internal markets’, ‘stakeholders’, ‘clients’  and ‘delivery’, we are familiar by now with the banal Birtian jargon.

The upshot of that was the idea that we ought to be outsourcing and privatising every possible aspect of government. This resulted in numerous aspects of a citizen’s life, hitherto overseen directly by government, now being subcontracted out (often to well-connected friends in the private sector who’d be advantageously placed to capitalise on such intimate knowledge of policy changes).

One might of course surmise that this whole process really took off under Tony Blair’s anodyne New Labour and almost embodies that project’s bland corporate ideology of intellectual dishonesty about the efficiency of the markets, but in truth, it’s been around a lot longer than that.

Atos Healthcare’s client list includes corporate bodies like Royal Mail, The Department of Health and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Atos (formerly Atos Origin), the parent company is quoted on the Paris stock exchange and it is presided over by a predominately French board of directors.

Atos Healthcare here in the UK is presided over by rather less stellar executives than board members of Carrefour and Reckitt & Colman. It’s also clear from news reports that the ‘canteen culture’ at this UK-based operation is less than complimentary of its ‘customers’ (corporate double-speak for the people whose lives they are seeking to ruin/empower). 


The Commons Select Committee on Work and Pensions is already familiar with the Atos modus operandi.

In an article by Kathleen Hall on 17 August 2011 in Computer Weekly, it was reported that Atos employees were to be investigated over Facebook remarks about disability benefit applicants who were being referred to as ‘parasitic wankers’.

But then coupled with this clearly unsympathetic corporate culture, Atos Healthcare’s employees have shown themselves to be adept at getting our learned friends involved when members of the public speak out against the hardship caused by their operatives’ conduct.

Also in August 2011, it was reported in the Morning Star that Atos Healthcare was “threatening legal action against a disabled man who set up a website collecting people's experiences of ‘fit for work’ assessments.”

While I never set out to collect the experiences of people’s fit for work assessments, I have nevertheless come across a case study among my own personal friends which I could only describe as shocking and I felt compelled to publish it as an illustration of what is wrong with the system that we are being asked to condone.

Fred (not his real name) is a former British soldier, having served with the Royal Green Jackets from 1988 to 1990. Upon leaving the army, Fred retrained as a plasterer and he lived with his girlfriend, raising a son in Southeast London. Fred, in his day, was a top quality plasterer; the type of quality English tradesman that is increasingly hard to find (because bosses in this country would rather hire cheap now than invest in the future through apprenticeships).

Everything was going well for Fred until he started to complain of chronic back pain. This was initially ignored by his GP but eventually Fred did get referred and was subsequently rushed into hospital to have a 11 inch tumour removed from the base of his spine.

So serious were the ramifications of this operation that Fred was informed by his doctors that he would never walk again, even if the removal of the tumour was a complete success. The likelihood of more intimate problems such as prolonged impotence and/or incontinence were only by the bye for Fred.

Being the kind of fighter that he is, Fred saw this as a challenge and he was determined to walk post-op. And he worked very hard to that end following the spinal operation; confounding the expectations of his carers.

Fred’s tenacity post op caused some problems for him; he began to suffer from trophic ulcers on his feet but he remained resolute in his attempts to push forward his recovery from the life-changing surgery.

When he attended an Atos assessment last year, he arrived at the examination centre on crutches and wearing an adult nappy (he was indeed incontinent and not much up for sexual activity either at that point).

In spite of ample and clear evidence of infirmity and despite the existence of incontrovertible documentary evidence of both the seriousness of his surgery and the raft of long-term medical issues post-op; Fred was somehow still determined fit to work and therefore referred to his local job centre to sign on for JSA (Jobseekers Allowance) rather than  receive employment support allowance.

Naturally, when Fred started turning up at the Job centre on crutches, he was promptly informed that he couldn’t be signed on as he was – you guessed it – unfit for work.

During this time, Fred’s health continued to deteriorate. He  managed nevertheless to appeal the decision and I began to make inquiries on Fred's behalf, first contacting the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to ascertain the exact nature of brief that had been given to Atos.

Here is an excerpt of a request I made to the DWP some weeks ago following a long phone call with one of their press officers; “I'd really like to get an idea of the method statement given by Atos Healthcare in pursuit of its contractual brief. I'd also love to speak to someone from Atos who might be able to clarify their practices and perhaps explain how they reached the decision they did in the case of the individual I described to you (former serviceman, spinal tumour etc).”

I also wondered whether I might be able “to establish how many individuals are successful in their appeals of fitness to work decisions. It would also be very helpful if I could get an idea of how much the average appeal costs.” To date, I have had no response from the DWP to my most cordial and solicitous requests for information.

I have also attempted (with the same amount of success, it must be admitted), to contact Atos Healthcare. My requests didn’t differ substantially; I told them it would be “very helpful if I could get an idea of how much each assessment costs and then how much the average appeal costs,” seeing as we the taxpayers ultimately foot the bill for this subcontracted work.

I haven’t heard back from either Atos or the DWP and the greater likelihood is that I will not hear from them. But efforts are being made to remedy this situation in the form of a freedom of information request.

In the meantime, Fred was hospitalised as his medical support improved. His welfare payment status was also retored to DLA. Fred is now in receipt of better care for his condition and he himself is coming to terms with the fact that he will never work again as a plasterer; the likelihood of retraining or educational opportunities is slim at best and Fred is facing the dawning reality that he may never work again.

For a man who’s dedication to graft was such that he would still be trying to work with a plasterer’s hawk in one hand and his colostomy bag in the other, the truth of a life out of work is not a prospect to be embraced with much hope but Fred’s a lemonade from lemons kind of bloke and he’ll find a way.

Fred’s story could have been very different however. Before he was hospitalised, he was quite literally at death’s door. Most distressingly, he’d lost a lot of his fighting spirit; that fiery light of defiance was flickering and faltering.  Atos was able to determine that Fred was fit for work despite all evidence to the contrary and several weeks elapsed before the situation was rectified.

How many people are not as lucky as Fred? How many people does Atos subject to this kind of treatment on a daily basis? Having attended a couple of similar assessments with friends, I remain amazed that the opinion of someone who is not a doctor can trump the assessment of GPs, consultants and a raft of healthcare professionals. I also continue to be concerned by the often onerous nature of interviews faced by what are, in the vast majority of cases, the most vulnerable members of our society.


For more on this subject check out Tony Greenstein's blog