Campaigners in the North-East took part in a nationwide protest against fitness for work tests for the sick and disabled.

They picketed the Durham City premises of Atos, the firm with the Government contract to do the assessments for the Department of Work and Pensions.

It was one of more than 140 across the country today (Wednesday, February 19).

Among those involved in the peaceful protest were Durham People’s Assembly, Unite Community and the Durham Miners’ Association .

The campaigners say the tests, devised by the Government to assess whether people on the old sickness benefit should in fact be working are flawed and lead to inhumane treatment.

They say six sick and disabled people have been driven to suicide after having their claim rejected.

Dr Trevor Bark, a Unite community member,said: “From the cases we see, it is clear that Atos have simply taken on the role as axemen for the government cuts, using an often simplistic assessment designed to get people off benefit rather than deal with the often complex medical issues which are preventing them from being able to look for a job, which many of them desperately want to do but are unable to."  

An Atos spokesman said the firm “has no control over welfare policy, the design of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), or the specific eligibility criteria for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

“These are set by government. Our healthcare professionals use their clinical judgement in order to apply the government-designed criteria and they do not have the scope to make any assessment outside of these guidelines.”