Claimants lose out

Published: 21 April, 2011

• I WAS shocked, although not surprised, to learn that since private company Atos won the contract to assess Islington residents for employment and support allowance 69 per cent of claimants have had their benefits withdrawn.  

I add my voice to the concerns being raised by people working in this field that the assessment process is flawed and local people are being left without vital support.

The government’s commitment to privatisation is leading to vast transfers of wealth from the poorest to the richest. 

While Atos’s assessments are denying disabled people in Islington a meagre income of £65.45 a week, its shareholders are benefiting from the company’s £28million (in 2009) profits and its executives are being paid hundreds of thousands of pounds.

At the last general election the Green Party was the only main party opposing privatisation while also offering a balanced budget without the need for cuts. 

We will continue to fight for a just society in which the basic economic rights of all are protected.

FRAN BURY 
Islington Green Party