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HATED medical firm Atos wrongly told 10,000 sick and disabled Scots they were fit to return to work.

Blind disability campaigner Henry Sherlock said last night: “This is a scandal. It is a shocking situation.”

In just five months last year, more than four out of 10 Scots who appealed had the decision overturned.

Data from a parliamentary answer provided by Department for Work and Pensions Minister Shailesh Vara shows that 9976 Scots won tribunals after being declared well enough to get a job by the French firm.

The figures, gathered in five months up to last September, showed a 43 per cent success rate from the 23,291 appeals heard.

Quite apart from the human suffering involved, the ­administration of the lengthy appeals process cost £66million in the UK last year alone.

Scotland had one of the highest figures for successful appeals.

The Work Capability Assessments were introduced in 2008 – supposedly to help people back into work.

But the Government’s statistics show that, on average, 37 per cent of those who challenge the decisions get them overturned.

(Image: Rutherglen Reformer)

More than a quarter of a million people across Britain took their case to a tribunal in 2012-13.

Atos, who have a contract to carry out the tests until 2015, have been consistently criticised for the quality of their work.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) claim work capability assessments have been “considerably improved” since 2010.

But Rutherglen and Hamilton West Labour MP Tom Greatrex said the system was still in chaos.

He added: “I ask the same question regularly to see where the figures are for Scotland and they have ­continually fluctuated between around 39 and 42 per cent.

The Government ­introduced some of these changes more than a year ago so while it might still be early, it’s not getting any better.

“The chaos of Atos’ assessment process leaves many people in a situation where they are struggling to pay their bills as a result of decisions which then turn out to be wrong.

“For more than four out of 10 of the assessments to be wrong and for that not to have improved over two years when the Government have been told about the problems again and again, just highlights there is something fundamentally flawed.”

(Image: Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images)

Campaigner Henry said: “There are people living on the breadline who have lost the will to live. It is as though we are the scum of the earth because we have the audacity to claim a benefit.

“We may as well be out in the street with a begging bowl because it is no more demoralising than this system we have to go through.”

Last July we revealed Atos had been warned they were not fit for purpose. The Government announced plans to draft in other firms after an ­“unacceptable reduction” in the quality of their work.

Atos yesterday claimed they were only adhering to DWP rules.

A spokesman said: “Appeals are against a DWP decision and not Atos ­Healthcare. The National Audit Office warned there were dangers in the assumption that a successful appeal is down to an Atos Healthcare report.

“Feedback from the tribunal service backs this up, showing judges find an inaccurate report from us to be a reason for a successful appeal in less than one per cent of cases.”

A DWP spokesman said: “A ­decision on whether someone is well enough to work is taken following a thorough ­assessment and after consideration of all the supporting medical evidence.

“If a fit for work decision is ­overturned at appeal, it does not necessarily mean the original decision was inaccurate. Often claimants produce new evidence in their appeal which wasn’t ­available when the original decision was made.”

Case study: Jim Elliot

DAD Jim began feeling seriously unwell during his fit-for-work assessment – and suffered a heart attack the next day.

The 55-year-old, of Cambuslang, near Glasgow, was still in hospital when the letter from the Department for Work and Pensions arrived telling him he had been assessed as being fit to go back to work.

Jim had stopped working after suffering another heart attack in 2011.