The Department for Work and Pensions has just announced the 10 private companies on the shortlist to deliver the personal independence payment (PIP) assessments, which everyone receiving disability living allowance will have to undergo from next year when DLA is replaced by PIPs. With 3.2 million captive customers, not to mention a monopoly on all new claimants, it’s not hard to see the appeal of the contract for profit-hungry companies untroubled by the ethics of slashing 20% from the money provided to disabled people to help them meet some of the basic expenses that living with a disability inevitably incurs.
Monthly Archives: May 2012
Family GPs are ordered to cut number of patients referred to hospital to earn extra cash
- Fears patients are having to bear the brunt of NHS ‘efficiency savings’
PUBLISHED: 00:02, 2 May 2012 | UPDATED: 08:31, 2 May 2012
Family doctors are being ordered to slash the numbers of patients they send to hospital to earn extra cash.
Six out of ten GPs said they face ‘inappropriate’ pressure to refer fewer patients and potentially deny them the best care.
The controversial scheme can pay out almost £9,000 a year to surgeries.
GPs could get extra cash for not sending patients to hospitals for treatment
It started last May when ministers brought in a series of targets enabling GPs to be rewarded for cutting the number of patients sent to hospital specialists or A&E departments.
However, a poll of 667 doctors found that 60 per cent were facing ‘inappropriate demands’ from managers.
State must pay family carers to look after elderly, say MPs
Families should be given state funding to care for their elderly relatives at home, a group of Conservative MPs has said.
Under the Government’s existing policies, councils are responsible for ensuring that local residents who need care are allocated “personal budgets”
By Tim Ross, Political Correspondent
7:00AM BST 02 May 2012
The current system means it is cheaper for families to put relations in the hands of local council-run care services, according to a report from the Free Enterprise Group.
The organisation said the Government could save an estimated £1.14 billion a year by funding families directly. Chris Skidmore, the MP for Kingswood, who wrote the report, said: “Where a local authority might otherwise be paying several hundred pounds a week for residential care, they could instead be offering a fraction of that to a relative to provide care themselves.”
How can it be right to profit from disability?
Disability living allowance is being replaced with personal independence payment assessments, and private companies are queueing up to cash in
Atos has been shortlisted for the PIP contract, despite being criticised for its handling of work capability assessments.
