Who are the lying thieving bastards - the disabled unemployed? .. or Triage?

[BankFodder]

BBC Panorama reveals how a company which has been tasked to help long-term disabled unemployed back to work - exploits those people and increases their profits by keeping them out of work by "parking them".

 

On paper, Linda Smith's job with an Aberdeen company was straight-forward - she was meant to be helping the long-term unemployed - many of them disabled - to find jobs and move off benefits.

The reality, she said, was a corporate culture that saw staff in training sessions referring to those same people as LTBs - code for "lying, thieving bastards".

"That is how they are referred to," she said of the clients of Triage, which is a key player in the government's ambitious plan to pay private companies to move people from benefit into work.

They haven't done a single thing to help me in any way”

Tony Wilson Long-term unemployed

There are 2.5m long-term sick and disabled unemployed people in the UK. The cost to the taxpayer is £13bn a year.

The government's £5bn Work Programme has identified 68,000 disabled people in receipt of incapacity benefit who it believes can work.

Full story

 

Scotland

 

And of course, this is all facilitated by poor monitoring procedures. It's all about the "look-good" factor.

[SWLABR9]

I'd be inclined to think it's about providing lucrative post-political career jobs for ministers more than anything. I'll give you a few billion from the taxpayer and we'll divvy it up between us later, that's my reading of the situation.

[san_d]

And of course, this is all facilitated by poor monitoring procedures. It's all about the "look-good" factor.

 

It's not poor monitoring procedures, it's called corruption.

 

I'd be inclined to think it's about providing lucrative post-political career jobs for ministers more than anything. I'll give you a few billion from the taxpayer and we'll divvy it up between us later, that's my reading of the situation.

 

^^^ This.

 

In Greece they've been rioting for much less.

[SWLABR9]

I believe in Greece they're rioting over rather more, but there should be more public indignation over what's happening. Still, if you have a country full of doormats, as we do, then politicians can't entirely be blamed for wiping their feet on us. I remember the reason we don't have a poll tax is because of the riots back then. I await with interest the coming of the new ones.

[BankFodder]

It really sounds incredible.

Let's see the programme - but if it is correct then there should be criminal repercussions for Triage

[Conniff]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qgk9h/Panorama_The_Great_Disability_Scam/

[Blondmusic]

I was placed on The Work Programme with Triage in my area. They did very little to help me find a job. I would get a new advisor every few months but most of the time I was told to 'Jobsearch' on their computers. They gave me a list of job websites all of which I signed up for. It was not easy to do my jobsearch at Triage as the staff would regularly gather together and start talking loudly about the clients, it was like being a pub with a bunch of loud drunks.

 

I did get a job interview in 2011 with a major electrical retailer. I asked Triage if they would help with the cost of an outfit for an interview, I was offered just £13 which included money for shoes and I was told to go to primark or a charity shop. £13 was all they offered me yet they got £400 off the Government for taking me on. Even when I got the job they non stop pestered me with phone calls asking me to put in good words for some of their other clients. I got so sick of the calls I ended up sending them a Section 10 data protection notice just to get them to leave me alone.

 

In 2012 a new advisor arrived who was really good, he printed my CV off and gave me a list of shops that were looking for staff. I got another job where I have been very happy for many months yet Triage still wont leave me alone with regular phone calls asking me about jobs in my workplace. I have just ended up barring their phone numbers.

[whitenight]

maybe people should look at david ikes website he was called a nutter years ago but all he has said was true, he wasnt or isnt mad at all , he speaks the truth, our government is persicuting us all to bring us to our knees then when we riot marshall law will be brought in to control us, its worse than corrupt, when the jobless have to pay council tax come april watch what will happen then, the army will be brought in to control us its what the government want TO CONTROL US maybe then the british will stand together and fight back!!!

[Emmzzi]

And he was right about the lizards too....

[Santa1023]

There is another way to look at this. Almost everyone complains that there are many people claiming benefit who are actually fit for work and we have all seen the publicity surrounding some extreme cases.

 

In the program the company was accused of 'cherry picking' the easy cases and getting them work while 'parking' the harder cases. If the objective is really to reduce the total number of people claiming these benefits then it could be said that it is actually working. I understand that there have been many cases where people who were told to attend an interview simply dropped off the benefit altogether, presumably because they expected to lose it anyway.

 

There is no excuse whatsoever for the rudeness and insulting behaviour referred to but overall the scheme does seem to be succeeding.

[Nystagmite]

There is no excuse whatsoever for the rudeness and insulting behaviour referred to but overall the scheme does seem to be succeeding.

 

How? The "success rate" is somewhere around 5%.

[Santa1023]

How? The "success rate" is somewhere around 5%.

 

Does that include those who drop out?

[AnewWay]

I've been with Triage since January 2012 and they have offered no support or help whatsoever. They simply forced me to sit in front of their computers for an hour every 3 weeks to do a jobsearch even though I am capable of doing that in my own home. I've barely seen any adviser and when I finally did the computer broke down preventing me from having the appointment. When I put in a complaint listing all the different problems I'd experienced with them they simply denied, dismissed or ignored the facts and claimed they'd done everything they could and adhered to their contractual obligations. I think the most worrying thing is that they lost a form of mine containing sensitive personal data. I've got a complaint in about that with the ICO. They've acted in a deeply incompetent and unhelpful way at all times. Oh and they treated me the same when I was referred to them back in 2010 on the old Flexible New Deal programme.

 

The Work Programme can't allow cherry picking as the contracts state they are to help everyone that comes their way and provide a basic level of service to them all. Even with cherry-picking they are failing to make any difference to the benefit claim rates. Remember the people they cherry pick are people likely to be able to find their own work anyway, so why pay these companies money to do something that would happen anyway? What worries me is that some people end their claim once they are assigned to the Work Programme leaving them in even greater poverty/debt while they struggle to look for work. It seems to suggest that all people care about is reducing the amount claimed in benefits not actually supporting people who have no income or who need/want support to look for work, which is what they claim WP is all about.

 

Triage has been nothing but rude and incompetent and it didn't surprise me watching the Panorama programme at all. The cost of benefit claims remains the same while the extra costs given to these dreadful providers has added an extra expense (ie. through attachment fees and job outcome fees). Looking at all the evidence it all seems a massive con. I've certainly felt conned while being on WP.

[notNBSagain]

I find it very sad that there are many of the disabled and unemployed who are trying very hard to find work, send off hundreds of applications and never get any replies not even a s** off. It should be remembered that some of these people seen as LTBs are only reclaiming their own money, that they may have been paying in to the system for many decades, thus supporting those that are calling them LTBs when they were in fact LTBs.

 

Anyone these days can lose their job and become an LTB, so very quickly and unexpectedly especially at the present time

Edited March 6, 2013 by notNBSagain