Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
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Maximum medical misjudgement
SOLOMON HUGHES condemns the Tory decision to take out a contract with Maximus – the scandal-hit US outsourcing firm reviled for its handing of Medicaid in the US
Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd
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AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
In March, Amber Rudd extended the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) contract with US corporation Maximus until 2021. The DWP pays Maximus about £150m a year to test disabled people for benefits with the “Work Capability Assessment.”
If Maximus says claimants are “fit for work,” they can’t get the most important benefit, the “Employment & Support Allowance.” There is a deep well of anger against Maximus in Britain, because disabled people say their judgements are mean, perverse and shoddy. The company makes millions, while claimants lose benefits after humiliating tests.
But Maximus are smirking all the way to the bank. Poor performance is nothing new to the firm. But grabbing public-sector contracts has turned them from a small business founded in 1975 to a corporate giant with a $2.3billion turnover.
The big money doesn’t show the firm does a good job. Maximus are currently in the middle of another scandal in their native US. In Kansas, state leaders have been wrestling with Maximus’s poor performance on a “Medicaid” contract for three years.
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