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Sickness benefit tests firm ATOS pulls out of £500million contract after death threats to staff
‘The private firm that decides whether benefits claimants are fit for work has pulled out of its £500million contract after claiming its staff received death threats.
Atos Healthcare, which has been accused of making unfair decisions on when sick and disabled people lose benefits, was ordered to review its tests last summer after a government report found its assessors were of unacceptably poor quality.
But yesterday, sources in the French IT company claimed it was pulling out as its staff were increasingly coming under attack while carrying out their work.’
Thousands of HIV patients go hungry as benefit cuts hit
‘Thousands of people with HIV have been left struggling in poverty by the Government’s welfare reforms – with some unable to afford the basic food they need to fight their condition.
The situation is now so critical that in some cases doctors are having to prescribe food supplements to ensure that patients’ medication works, The Independent on Sunday has learned.
A national hardship fund for people with HIV/Aids, run by the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), registered a 63 per cent increase last year in those needing emergency help because their benefits had been stopped.’
Food banks set to feed a million people this year
‘The number of Britons using food banks to survive is set to top a million this year as a record number of families ask for the emergency handouts.
The shock figure comes after 41 church leaders blamed the Coalition’s benefits regime for forcing people into starvation and called for it to act.
The Trussell Trust, the UK’s largest food bank network, fed 738,000 people last year – and bosses expect numbers to soar again.
Boss Chris Mould said: “We could easily hit a million this year, and that’s really distressing. Somebody in a food bank is at the end of their tether. They have run out of resources.”’
Bedroom tax scandal wrongly charged to 40,000 council tenants – and Iain Duncan Smith is 'in denial'
‘Bungling Bedroom Tax villain Iain Duncan Smith has been accused of being “in denial” over his mishandling of the hated levy.
The attack on him came as the number of council tenants wrongly penalised in the scandal headed towards a shocking 40,000.
Results from 175 of Britain’s 346 local authorities now show that 19,140 homes had the cruel charge slapped on illegally.’
