A senior executive at the company used by the Government to oversee disability benefits has attempted to amend his career history amid anger from disability campaigners that the welfare state is now being run by private sector “henchmen”.{jcomments on}
Professor Michael O’Donnell, the former medical director of Atos, now plays a senior role in the American company Maximus, which has won a £500m Government contract to decide whether disabled people are able to return to work. His previous company walked away from the contract, which was supposed to end in 2015.
Despite Government promises of a fresh start, Professor O’Donnell now works as the medical director of Health Management Limited (HML) which is a subsidiary of Maximus. The company claims he will not be directly involved in the delivery of the new contract, but all reference to Professor O’Donnell’s previous role at Atos was removed from his career history on the business networking site LinkedIn this week - which MPs and campaigners fear is an effort to conceal the close relationship between the two organisations.
