... to draw this appalling behaviour by Capita to your attention

[CockacidalManiac]

People might remember my thread about my experience as a PIP assessor for Capita. Well, that so would appear to be a new low even for them. Awarding bonuses for cutting care to disabled people?

Link; www.disabilitynewsservice.com/immoral-capita-offered-200-bonuses-to-social-workers-to-slash-care-packages/

PIP thread (under a pseudonym);
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2764894--to-give-people-assistance-with-claiming-PIP

Still deserving the Crapita name I assume?

Hmm. I don't think it's realistic for older people to live indefinitely in their own homes if they require a lot of assistance to do so, unless they can pay for their own servants.

Crapita are involved in so many public 'services'.
I've never heard a good word said for them, so the name certainly fits.

From that piece;
'Rebecca said she and her colleagues were also put under huge pressure to replace the care packages of service-users receiving 15-minute care visits with “telecare” equipment.'

'Assistive technology' is a recurrent favourite of CCGs; they're easily impressed with the salesmen pushing this as a solution. It promises lots, and delivers very little, in my experience. It also creates more problems than it solves; that's when it doesn't malfunction and starts sending alerts everywhere.

There is a current scandal where Capita staff have taken bribes to fit offenders ankle bracelets loose. (So offender can just take it off)

I think the going rate was £80.

How long before we need a backhander for the rest?

There is a current scandal where Capita staff have taken bribes to fit offenders ankle bracelets loose. (So offender can just take it off).I think the going rate was £80

It was £400 - discovered when a man was arrested for attempted murder at the same time when Capita were "monitoring" his curfew at home

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/04/capita-staff-paid-by-criminals-to-fit-electronic-tags-loosely

Organisations such as G4S and Capita hoover up contracts from national and local government, and do this kind of stuff all the time.
With no apparent consequences.

Oops £400 apologies for implying Capita employees sell their services cheap.

Still that's for criminal services there might be a discount for the elderly and disabled.

Capita profits are suffering. They will have to win some new contracts.

My biggest surprise here, having worked for Crapita for a while many years ago to my shame (not in a public services section though), is that they are paying the staff a good salary. ISTR I got a little below average for the work I did for them despite being charged out at around 8 x my gross pay; the argument was that as I was technically home based had no commuting costs and my household costs would be less.

Yes they would pay for DBB at a 3 hotel as long as it came in below a certain rate (they get an extremely good reduced rate in certain chains), but some of the hotels rated as 3 in Southampton are really godawful - I demanded to be moved from one due to how filthy my room was with dust and grime everywhere, and things like a dried up dribble of tea stained sugar in one of the tea cups (yuk).

In my current job I speak to a large number of pensions companies via their help desks, and without fail the Capita staff are the most miserable and least helpful, and take the longest to get anything done. I don't actually blame the staff though, as having worked for that shower many years ago I know just how appallingly they can treat staff.

I don't think it's realistic for older people to live indefinitely in their own homes if they require a lot of assistance to do so, unless they can pay for their own servants.

Were do you suggest they go and who is going to pay for it?

My DH is 67 next month He got his DLA to PIP letter last week.

We have done the phone call and are waiting for the PIP2 form. Ive been reading a lot of disability blogs and have been on the patient info website People are being assessed and reassessed over and over. It DOES appear we are going to have ppl in their 70s and 80s being dragged in for assessment and pensioners are going to have it hanging over their heads all the time. Its ridiculous Its harassment Its disgusting.
There are pensioners with mobility and breathing problems being turned down and having to go through months and months of stress.

if i see one more fucking thread on MN saying that pensioners are being left alone and arent subject to the cuts i am REALLY going to lose my shit on there!

And its not just one assessment either Its reassesment after reassessment And David Mowat had the absolute cheek to say families should step up.

Well maybe it would help if the older/elderly family members themselves wernt losing the extra financial help they are/were getting to help pay for care or mobility needs.

Not surprising - I was TUPEd over to them many years ago and it was an appalling experience. Perhaps I was somewhat naive, but their cavalier attitude of "profits before people" was really shocking to me.

I'm not talking about the staff only. Their attitude to service users was "That person is not our customer. Our customer is the company who have hired us to service this contract. Therefore the end user doesn't matter as long as we can massage the figures to make it look as if they got a good service."

(This massaging involved doing things like turning queues upside down so that only the most recent calls and letters were answered quickly - if your enquiry had fallen outside of service level target then it was destined to languish unanswered more or less forever.)

I would never work for this kind of company (i.e. an outsourcer) again.

An old blog but even more relevant now.

speye.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/ids-to-cut-disability-benefits-to-children-and-pensioners/

Loose ankle bracelets? FFS. And while skimming on care packages they have the gall to moan at families.

Yet they'll continue to be awarded contracts

Do they hire a lot of ex-ministers? How do they keep getting contracts?

Well, their chairman just received a knighthood...

I am an allied hcp and was offered a job with Capita for 10k per year over my current salary. The staff looked as miserable as sin. The money would have made such a difference but I am so glad I declined the role

When I worked for Crapita, I was contracted for 22 hours a week; yet it took me about 35 hours to do the assessments plus reports.
Bastards.

"That person is not our customer. Our customer is the company who have hired us to service this contract"

Ive seen the same attitudes from some of the sub contractors that do repairs and maintenance for some of the HAs.

Sub contracting is a good way of passing the buck if something goes wrong. They get all the money but none of the responsibility and blame.

I find this bewildering. I'm currently on long term sick leave from a job I've been in for 16 years. So far been off for 8 weeks. Waiting for my treatment to start on the NHS - even went privately to try and speed things along so that I could go back to work but insurance company won't fund the treatment as it's now considered a chronic condition

I had a meeting with HR after 4 weeks sick leave and was told if, after 8 more weeks, I couldn't provide a return date they would look to terminate my contract.

So basically I am sick enough that my employer is allowed to sack me but not sick enough to be able to claim benefits once I have lost my job?

If the government wants to cut benefits they must change employment laws to force employers to support the chronically sick.

I am perfectly capable of working (or I will be once I get the treatment that I need)but I will need some understanding for hospital appointments etc. What would they prefer? Us all lose our jobs, our homes etc?

How can social workers do this? It's in breach of our fucking code of ethics.