WORK CAPABILITY ASSESSMENTS AND DEATH OF MR BRIAN MCARDLE

That this House calls for an immediate cessation and reassessment of Atos work capability assessments following the death of Brian McArdle who died from a heart attack the day after his benefits were stopped; believes that Mr McArdle was badly served by a deeply flawed work capability assessment which wrongly declared him and many others fit for work; further believes that work capability assessments are particularly unsuitable in determining whether people with mental health problems are ready for work and that the threat of losing the benefits exacerbates people's mental health problems and pushes them further from work rather than closer to it; notes that despite the Government having outsourced more than 3 billion of public services to Atos Healthcare the Department for Work and Pensions refuses to publish Atos statistics that include data relating to how many people appealed their fit for work decision and how many of these appeals have been successful; and calls on the Government to conduct a radical and thorough overhaul of the system before there is more senseless loss of life through a process the outcomes of which appear to be beyond parliamentary accountability.