Atos, Disability And Paralympics

David Cameron leads a Government that is systematically attacking the rights of the disabled and financial support is being confiscated. The ability to have an independent life is being attacked. “Scroungers” are subjected to humiliating tests and regarded as drains on the public purse. Abuse towards the disabled is on the increase and Keith Robertson (Scottish Disability Equality Forum) warns that 'welfare reform' is leaving disabled people feeling “suicidal”. The 2012 Paralympics are sponsored by Atos (incorporated in France as a société anonyme (limited company). A French corporation charged with driving disabled people off benefits by using a points-based work capability. Atos is charged with examining those with disabilities or illnesses and those who receive fewer than 15 points are deemed "fit for work" so that they lose Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). This is often a degrading process and the charity Mind describe the assessments as “unfit for purpose” and having “a detrimental impact on people with mental health problems”.

Many seriously ill people are being judged able to work and according to gold medal-winning Paralympian Tara Flood:

"It is a shocking irony that Atos is a main sponsor of

London 2012 whilst destroying disabled lives

on behalf of the [UK] Government."

A major concern must be that since Olympians can perform remarkable feats as disabled individuals, then the argument can cynically go that everyone else (totally unrealistically) should also be so capable. If that were the case then absolutely everyone (disabled or able-bodied) could rise to Olympic standards.

DA

Activists from Disabled People Against the Cuts (DPAC) and UKUncut are expected to drive the point home during the opening ceremony. They have already gathered 85 pages of stories about how sick and disabled people have been treated. "The stories are disgusting, really harrowing," says DPAC's Linda Burnip. "They are people who are really, really seriously ill who couldn't possibly be expected to work - and yet they're being found capable." Disabled people are being driven to "suicide and death", she says. The stories will be placed in a coffin and delivered to Atos' headquarters.

A Freedom of Information request in April found that 32 people were dying a week so a coffin is appropriate. In short, the means for disabled people to have an independent, dignified life is being trashed.

The Independent Living Fund, supporting 21,000 severely disabled people, will be closed by 2015. "It allows them to go to university, go places with friends and family, do things others take for granted," says Ms Burnip. Her own son is a recipient, and it allows him to work: "I don't know what his future is, if he has any." In Worcestershire, the county council is considering plans to scrap support for at-home care. Across the country, disabled people face being driven into care homes, ending their independent existence.

By forcing people into 'homes' it moves responsibility to parents/carers and so disavows any future responsibility. The potentially very lucrative gains by the 'care home' industry must not be overlooked.

DA 

The weak and vulnerable are again targeted as an easy (unmoving) target. There are many more able-bodied 'scroungers' that this government fails to tackle.

These decisions clearly do not consider Human need. Compare arbitrary targets to slash welfare spending by 20% to the Government's estimates of overall disability benefit fraud, which is less than 1%. In Cameron's Britain, support for the disabled is a luxury no longer affordable. It seems a paradox where Cameron has personal experience of disability.

Human empathy is strong, and attacking society's most vulnerable can only be achieved through a campaign of demonisation. Benefits fraud may be low, but "scroungers" are portrayed by the media as the norm. The Sun has launched what it calls a "crusade to end the scandalous benefits fraud crippling the country".

Remember, The Sun

supports the Tory party

 This has consequences for real people. Last month, 46% of respondents to a survey by the charity, Scope, reported that attitudes towards the disabled had worsened over the year.

"It's telling these figures come as the Government continues to put weeding illegitimate claimants at the heart of its welfare rhetoric," says its chief executive Richard Hawkes. “So, by all means, let us celebrate the Paralympics. But don't let this Government capitalise on it. They are leaving sick and disabled people frightened, impoverished and stripped of dignity, independence and hope. Not that they are taking it lying down. Disabled activists will stage actions throughout the Games, demanding to be heard, and I hope many of you will support and join them. Cameron will hope that the victims of his policies will suffer silently: but, if they don't, these policies can be defeated and the struggle for dignity, security and independence can be won."