News

A Benefits and Work member who tried to launch a petition against Atos on the government’​s new Epetition website is outraged that it has been rejected

Our member posted a petition which sought “​The Removal of Unum Provident and ATOS origin from Department of Work and Pensions completel​y.”​

However, they received an email which stated that the petition had not been accepted. The email went on to say that petitions are refused if they:

contain information which may be protected by an injunction or court order

contain material that is potentially confidential, commercially sensitive or which may cause personal distress or loss

include the names of individuals if they have been accused of a crime or information that may identify them

include the names of individual officials who work for public bodies, unless they are part of the senior management of those organisations

include the names of family members of elected representatives, eg MPs, or officials who work for public bodies

Clearly, our member’​s petition did not break any of these rules and they now intend to make a formal complaint to their MP about the apparent failure of the site to apply its regulations fairly.