24
th
August 2011
CarerWatch is a group of people with disability and unpaid family carers.You can see allabout us here On 19th August 2011 our discussion group was suddenly without prior noticetaken downWe asked our hosting company what had happened and have been informedthat they received a letter from solicitors acting for ATOS and that we areunder threat of legal action by ATOS and have therefore been taken down.As we were not contacted directly by the company and have received nocomplaints, we are unaware of any issues causing concern.We have writtento ATOSto try and resolve this problem but so far have not received anyexplanation.We have lost all contact details of our members through this closure andcannot get in touch with them. Many of our members are very vulnerable andwe are concerned that this event will make them feel more isolated and alone.We imagine this is an error by ATOS as we cover a wide variety of carer anddisability issues and Employment and Support Allowance is a
minor
part of the work we do.CarerWatch have always made it clear that we have no criticism of ATOS.They are a private company and doing exactly what the government is payingthem to do. We do have some objections to government policy on ESA. Inparticular we think the Work Related Activity Group of ESA has been styledexactly like JSA with time limits, threats and sanctions. We feel this is notappropriate for people with serious long term illness or disability who aretrying to work. Sanctions intimidate them and may make them more ill. Webelieve that if the sanctions were taken off the WRAG - the WRAG wouldbecome a supportive, constructive place for people to find work as was the
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