Protests are taking place across the UK and online today as part of a national day of action against the involvement of Maximus in the work capability assessment (WCA).
Maximus took over the WCA contract from Atos and are to be paid more than twice as much as Atos for carrying out the widely discredited medical assessment for eligibility for employment and support allowance.
Maximus are convince that they can improve the process for claimants, having told the Guardian newspaper:
“if we can reach out and make people understand the process they are going through … if we can reduce some of the anxiety … if we can schedule more intelligently … if we can speak to people rather than just sending letters. Those are some of the differences … We believe if we do it right, we should be able to do this in a good way.”
Protestors, however, point out that the same staff will be using the same software to assess claimants using the same legal criteria.
More details on the day of action are available from the DPAC website.
