Wheelchair User Called Fire Riisk By ATOS Has Benefits Reinstated
A disabled man who was refused a benefits assessment because his wheelchair was deemed a safety risk, has had his payments reinstated.
Charles Foreman, from Leicestershire, who has a back condition, had his benefits stopped in 2011.
The 53-year-old was turned away from an assessment on the first floor of a health centre in 2013 because providers Atos said his chair was a “fire risk”.
Atos’s contract ended early in March over “significant quality failures”.
‘Depressed’
Mr Foreman, from Market Harborough, said he was “ecstatic” after the hearing in New Walk, Leicester.
“It’s been hell – it’s like being buried. I’ve been depressed – I haven’t been eating,” he said.
Mr Foreman has had back problems since in 1982 which eventually forced him to stop working 12 years later.
He started claiming disability benefits a decade later after he was told he had a degenerative back condition.
But his benefits were stopped in 2011 after a doctor assessed him at his home.
Last year he was turned away from a fresh assessment at a building in Rutland Street, Leicester, because Atos was “unable to allow access” to people with walking aids.
It claimed the number of stairs they would need to descend in a fire posed a fire risk.
At the tribunal, he was told his benefits will be reinstated and backdated to 2012.
In 2010 the government began phasing out incapacity benefit and required all claimants to be assessed before switching to Employment and Support Allowance.
Atos was heavily criticised over the number of assessments it made and lengthy waiting times before the government ended its contract early in March.
Same Difference 
Reblogged this on sdbast.
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Reblogged this on stewilko's Blog and commented:
Should not of been stolen in the first place. Well done him
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exactly the same thing happened to my relative, he was asked to leave a first floor building because of the “fire” risk, they didn’t stop his benefits though cos I was “armed” with a camera & a dictaphone.
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Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
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Why wasn’t ATOS prosecuted over their failure / refusal to comply with the Equality Act?
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