EARLIER this week, Atos Healthcare, a French-owned firm behind controversial benefit assessments, took on a new name.

The change of moniker to Independent Assessment Services follows a deluge of negative publicity which Atos, and fellow PIP and ESA benefit assessment firm Capita, attracted for their work which has been labelled intrusive, inaccurate, humiliating, and at times wrong.

The Government’s own figures prove the latter point. In the final three months of 2016 alone 65 per cent of people appealing against the denial of PIP (Personal Independence Payment) won their cases.

Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, a campaigner for the rights of disabled people, has said that the rate of successful appeals exposed a system that "isn't working".

Capita and Independent Assessment Services have been handed contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money to assess people with health conditions and provide information so that DWP can decide if claimants are eligible for benefits or fit for work.

The information provided by assessors has led to between 400 and 500 adapted cars, powered wheelchairs, and scooters are being taken away from disabled people every week. It has seen people with conditions such as cerebral palsy and MS, who are unable to drive a car or walk without the aid of a stick, from being denied benefits. 

If somebody cannot be bothered to work or is trying to dupe the system then we have no sympathy for them, but so many cases involve people affected by misfortune and the system is failing us all.

It too often denies money to people who have been unfortunate enough to be born with a genetic problem or like Alex Howe – whose case features in today’s Echo – have suffered a lifechanging accident.

Atos said this week: “Our new name better represents the work we do and explains that our role is to assess and process PIP cases.”

Whatever the real reason behind the new name one thing has to change. Amid the pledges to offer robust, efficient and value for money assessments the assessors themselves need to factor in something that appears to have been lost – an element of compassion and common sense.