Update Monday 9 February: Not much of an update, sadly. Have heard fuck all from Maximus about this issue of recording and filming face-to-face assessments, or anything for that matter. I thought they were supposed to be customer focused and all that. ZZzzzzz.

Anyway:

Here’s a very good list of DPAC protest actions planned for March 2 against Maximus, the Atos duplicate that is due to take over work capability assessments with the help of persons who should know better. I have 2 March blocked out in the diary for protest attendance myself, so hope to see you there. (Update 9 February: more details of protest action and online action now here).

In the meantime, I have a couple of questions for Maximus re: its plans for the work capability assessment. Putting these out there while we continue to campaign to scrap WCAs altogether:

1) Will Maximus allow people to record their face-to-face assessments on their phones or any recording gear they have? Disabled people had to threaten the DWP with court action to get recordings on the table last time around and even then, the so-called system the DWP and Atos came up with was garbage. People either had to wait for Atos to produce a dual recorder and an assessor who agreed to be recorded, or they had to be able to produce equipment that made dual recordings themselves. Almost nobody has that sort of dual CD-recording gear in the cupboard at home, so that was all pretty shit.

2) Will Maximus allow people being assessed/journalists/friends to film their assessments? I had to film people’s assessments on the sly when Atos was in so-called charge and while I’ll certainly do that again, it’d be great to just be able to turn up anywhere with a camera in my hand, as well the little hidden one I sew into my jumper. Just throwing that out there.

I can’t see Maximus objecting to either of these concepts, given their claims that WCAs will forevermore be conducted in the spirit of decency and openness. I fully expect a positive email response from Maximus on both points, in which case we can all start tooling up with recording gear. That way, we can all see for ourselves whether or not Maximus is performing with “more touch, more communication,” whatever the hell that means. We can also decide whether performing with “more touch, more communication,” and the recent Maximus charm offensive matters a damn (spoiler: it doesn’t). I mean – being treated halfway decently in a face-to-face assessment is not the whole story if you’re thrown off your benefit and into poverty. That part of the equation will never add. We know this government’s agenda for disabled people.

Also – I fail to understand why these companies think they should get a pat on the head for deciding to treat people decently – or at least, deciding to go through the motions of treating people decently. People who have to go through WCAs should be treated decently as a matter of course. The fact that they were treated so badly by Atos should actually see IDS in jail.

Anyway – if you can find any references to Maximus assessments and filming and recordings, please send. Always good to get these things straight from the off.

See you on 2 March. I’ll be the middle-aged bird covered in recorders and cameras.

#ScrapWCA