Using undercover filming, reporter Jackie Long investigates the controversial processes used to assess whether sickness and disability benefit claimants should be declared fit for work.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od

I watched this programme last night along with the panorama one regarding the assessment for back to work. I found them both very disturbing and anxious. I wonder what others thought about them? How they can say that if you can press a button you are fit to work is beyond me and as it suggested target figures is a key figure in all of this.

We saw the programme as well. It showed an appalling system in action and offers an explanation why we hear of seriously ill people with Parkinson's falling foul of these tests.

We are working to get these tests changed. But we need your help!

Anyone who has had one of these assessments (or more than one) please let us know what happened. Or tell the independent team looking at these tests what needs to change.

Or if you don't have much time you can answer a few questions via an anonymous survey if you would prefer. You can find more about all these opportunities here http://bit.ly/NGj665

Donna
Social Policy and Campaigns Officer

Hi all @ the forum i myself have been subject to ATOS "medical" and had my benefits reduced .It took me 9 months to appeal and for them to reverse the decision .I wasnt looked at as a patient more as a number .I got the impression that if i could find my own **** with 1 hand i was fit for work .I just felt so small and was told my tremor was a sign of stress as i was attending a medcal even though the "DR" admmitted he knew nothing about PD i was livd that ths person who doesnt even know me and the struggles i have wth PD or was even qualfed to talk to me about PD should get the job of trying to change my life .I never asked for this to happen to me nor did anyone else but i had a full and active work family life before PD .Sorry to rannt but thats how felt belittled and doubting myself

the basic question is wrong = it shouldnt be are people fit to work but whether they are fit to be employed, ie whether it is likely they will get a reasonable job otherwise it is just cost cutting.

Hello Everyone,
Thankfully we don't have to go through these degrading assessments any more, but when my husband went for a mobility test the doctor said he was fine and that Parkinsons was not a progressive disease so he prepared a long statment for the appeal and sent it ahead of his appointment, the panel were very grateful for this and awarded his benifit straight away.
Years ago a doctor looked at my husband and I and said do you need that (my Wheelchair)my husband and I didn't know what she was talking about at first, when I explained I couldn't manage without it she told me to get on the couch and told my husband to take it out of the room, it was a huge room, I felt dreadful but then she said to me you are unfit for work and awarded my benifit, it just goes to show nothing changes!
Good luck to all of you and don't be afraid to appeal but do give lots in information.
best wishes
vivian

WENT FOR MY ASSESSMENT THE OTHER DAY..HOW THEY CAN CALL IT AN ASSESSMENT I DO NOT KNOW..MY ASSESSOR WAS QUIETLY SPOKEN AND HAD AN ACCENT AND AT TIMES DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND, HE ALSO SPOKE TO HIS COMPUTER SCREEN RATHER THAN ME WHICH I MUST ADMIT IS A PET HATE OF MINE..
SOME OF THE QUESTIONS WERE STRANGE REALLY..WHAT TIME DID I GET UP....THEY DID NOT WANT TO KNOW WHEN I WENT TO BED,JUST WHEN I GOT UP..THE BEST ONE WAS CAN I SEE OKAY OUT OF MY GLASSES!

I remember D Cameron MP making the most of having a disabled child (sadly deceased - and I genuinely mean that) and assuring the population that the wolverines (formerly known as the conservative party) had lost their taste for human flesh, but the more this sorry excuse of a misgovernment goes on the more they are exposed as giant carniverous weasels.

It is my impression, on the other hand, that people abusing drugs and alcohol get varying amounts of help and are not considered to be employable.