HindleA wrote:Baroness Hollis forensic demolition with a smiling face;Clive Betts,equally forensic.The former in the Lords,the latter late at night against braying and an increasingly inebriated audience.It is there.
Points taken - yes, it IS there. But it's not enough and it is not making much difference.
There is a horrible facet to Munchausens' Disease by Proxy - in which people (usually parents) inflict injures on others (usually children) in order to produce symptoms which require medical attention and attract sympathy - called "La Belle Indifference".
This takes the form of the victim becoming passive recipients of both the injuries and the invasive medical procedures conducted to diagnose/treat them - the victim appears to feel little pain and tolerates all manner of abuse, well-intentioned or otherwise.
It often seems to me that the majority of our politicians are content to sit passively in both Houses while a few doughty campaigners register their protests (forensically or otherwise) but say and do nothing to stop what is basically abuse.
They KNOW that 569 suicides of people with mental illness have been attributed by coroners to the WCA; they KNOW that IDS/DWP refuse to release full statistics on other suicides and known untoward deaths. They give every appearance of indifference.
Maximus has failed to train its' staff. Half of them have not even completed what passes for "training" - which, as we know, is nothing more onerous than instruction on how to apply the LIMA system, and takes a matter of days.
Maximus, like Atos, has failed to attract health care professionals with qualifications registered with our statutory bodies - all that is required is a "registerable" qualification, obtained anywhere; and in many cases the staff concerned have chosen not to complete the necessary examinations/supervised practice that would allow them to work in the NHS. But they're good enough for this.
Maximus, like Atos, has failed to meet its' targets; failed to produce reports which are functionally literate; failed to assess accurately, fairly, in person or by correspondence only, to the extent that appeal rates are as high as ever and most of them are won by the claimant (even allowing for the draconian Mandatory Consideration of Review).
CAB has stated that it deals with more complaints about ESA and the WCA than any other issue. By June 2014, it had dealt with 1.5 Million cases. That's 250,000 people for every year since ESA was introduced.
Bearing in mind that not all claimants who appeal, or have problems with ESA, use the CAB, the number is likely to be far higher.
Maximus currently has a backlog of 290,000 people waiting on average 29 weeks for their first WCA. They will all be on the lowest possible rate of the benefit for at least 16 weeks longer than they should be. That is a saving for DWP in excess of £140 Million PA.
Higher rates are only paid after the WCA if the claimant proves their incapacity for work, never backdated to week 13 of the claim when the WCA should have taken place. Sgnificant savings are being made on the backs of sick people.
Maximus will, by 2020, have been paid £1.6 Billion. The savings expected from this are £1.0 Billion. Even if they are achieved, which is by no means a done deal, the cost to the taxpayer is massive. That £0.6 Billion would pay the higher rate of ESA to 6 Million people for a week. The current ESA caseload is less than that. It hasn't changed - despite all this - for years.
I would love to know how Sue Marsh feels about all this. "Customer Experience" does not appear to improving, does it?
And - your good people notwithstanding, HindleA - I want to hear much more outraged noise from those who claim to represent us and who claim to oppose the Tories. I remain resolutely unimpressed.
