WHO ARE CAPITA BUSINESS SERVICES LTD?
Alongside a raft of other shameful provisions, the welfare reform Bill (2012) introduced the Personal independent payment (PIP). PIP replaces the Disability living allowance. Unlike D.L.A, PIP eligibility is assessed upon how well a disabled person can function on a day-today basis, rather than being adjudicated on a medical diagnosis as D.L..A had previously been. To assess this, the British government awarded a private company, ‘Capita business services LTD’ with a £65 million contact.
CAPITA privately employs medical professionals who conduct face-face points based assessments on behalf of the department for communities. Assessments take place either at an applicant’s home, or at one of CAPITA’s centres. In November 2015, Sinn Féin and the DUP signed up to the grotesque welfare reform bill 2012 and, ever since, CAPITA has been rolled out to become a live cause of concern for disabled and vulnerable people throughout the North.
In March 2017, CAPITA faced serious criticism in relation to another of its private contract’s; the collection of TV licence fees on behalf of the BBC, CAPITA employees were accused of being motivated by an ‘aggressive, incentive based scheme’ which led them to deliberately target the vulnerable. Shockingly, in its welfare reform contract, CAPITA assessors have been captured on camera, mocking disabled claimants to PIP while conducting face-face medical assessments.
As Republican Socialists, we could write books on why a private, English based limited company, employed by the Tories, is wholly incapable of providing fair medical assessments which are based on the needs of disabled and vulnerable working class people in the 6-Counties as opposed to the greed of the Tory regime. What is occurring in our communities at present is absolutely sickening. Disabled and vulnerable people, people who are seriously ill, both physically and mentally, and who struggle to survive daily as it is, are being barraged with phone-calls and complex letters from a private company. Even before any assessment is completed, the vulnerable are forced to live under the constant and prolonged threat of absolute financial destitution. To the already mentally ill, this process constitutes psychological torture.
The methods presently being employed by CAPITA to assess medical need are abominable and echo previous complaints against the company in regards to aggressive incentive based practices. Trickery, chicanery, and subterfuge are regularly being employed by CAPITA employees in order to starve sick people from their only means of survival. If they possessed a spine; the opportunists of Sinn Féin and the DUP, who ushered in this era of welfare reform, would hang their heads in shame. The I.R.S.P has responded to British government terror against the worker, in all its many guises and in every political circumstance for over 40 years. We pledge now to fight this current wave of British terrorism and to do so with the same resolve and vigour as we always have. “We owe our allegiance to the working class”. CAPITA is specifically designed to dissuade those who are most in need from pursuing their rights and entitlements. This process aims to facilitate a British Government abdication from its responsibilities. We implore those affected by welfare reform to seek out all and any assistance and to not be dissuaded from pursuing your rights.
Tarlach MacDhonail
N.Belfast IRSP
