Atos protest widens

As this very page went to print, hundreds of demonstrators in London were gathering near the antiseptic corporate enclave of Triton Square.

It's a familiar address for UK Uncut, being the national headquarters of HM Revenue & Customs and the Santander banking group.

But this time they were there for government contractor and Paralympic sponsor Atos Origin - holding an "audacious, daring and disruptive action" alongside Disabled People Against Cuts.

The plan is especially audacious given the possiblity activists could be charged with not only the usual public order offences, but with a newly legislated "Olympic offence" - defined by the Met as "any crime that has or may have an impact upon the effective delivery or image of the Games."

The stakes are high - but given their cause, it's hardly surprising. For most, Atos is just another faceless government contractor in an endless sea of outsourcing.

Presumably its £100m sponsorship deal with the International Paralympic Committee is supposed to change all that.

But Paralympic swim champ Tara Flood knows all too well who they are - subsidiary Atos Healthcare has booked her in for an appointment next March to see whether she, a triplegic, needs the disability living allowance that pays for her custom-fitted car.

And after hearing countless horror stories of friends and strangers' struggles to gain or keep their benefits, the long-time activist told the Star she decided to join Monday's mock opening ceremony outside City Hall, in the shadow of Tower Bridge's gargantuan Paralympic logo.

To put things in perspective, the £100m that Atos has earmarked for the Paralympics equates to a single year's payment from the Department of Work and Pensions for just one of its contracts testing people's disabilities - the controversial work capability assessments.

Claimants used to be assessed on evidence from their own medical records - but work capability assessments see them called in for company-administered tests using a computerised points-based programme.

Claimants must attempt various physical challenges - attempting to pick a £1 coin from the floor, for example - and if their efforts exceed 15 points, they are deemed fit to work and stand to lose part or all of their employment and support allowance - regardless of pain or context.

Trials in 2010 found a 70 per cent drop in full benefits granted and a 30 per cent drop in "unfit for work" assessments, leading critics to accuse Atos and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith of deliberately driving down payouts - whatever the cost to people's lives.

Atos has rejected the claims, but Channel 4's Dispatches team obtained undercover footage of one Atos instructor telling trainees an approval rate of 13 per cent was still "too high."

Since its launch, more than 300,000 people have challenged their decisions and 38 per cent have won - with a judicial review now pending.

Nor is the pain inflicted merely financial. Stress-related illnesses are rife among claimants and Citizens Advice has corroborated "a number of cases" where people have died shortly after being ruled fit for work.

In fact Freedom of Information requests by the Daily Mirror in April found that more than a thousand people in last year's trials were moved into its "work-related activity group" - involving reduced payments and work-focused interviews - only to die by March the following year, a rate of 32 dead a week.

Yet the Department for Work and Pensions rewarded Atos this month with another £400m worth of contracts testing similar benefits - Flood's disability living allowance and support for injured veterans and victims of industrial accidents.

Atos for its part has insisted it does not make the decisions on people's benefits. It merely provides evidence for DWP officials and a successful appeal reflects on the department's assessment.

For its part, the Games' organisers have repeatedly come to their sponsor's defence, with Locog chief Paul Deighton on Wednesday calling Atos "a critical and valued member of delivering these Games."

In that case, ask this week's protesters, what does that make the athletes?