Sue Marsh sells her soul for £75,000 a year.

help4help2013

everyone has a price

Richard_Cranium

patman99 wrote: »

You can't change the way a company works with a blog. But you can if you are put in charge.

Ms Marsh hasn't been put in charge of Maximus.

patman99 wrote: »

If I were to spend my life blogging about the inequalities of the benefits system and, as a subsequence, were to be offered a job in charge of the DWP, I would take it. Not to be gagged, but to use my power to remove all the bad bits (such as monthly U/C) and build an efficient and fair system that was easy to understand not only by those working-it, but those accessing-it to.

Ms Marsh hasn't been put in charge of the DWP either, so as she controls neither organisation how exactly will she use the powers she hasn't been granted to change anything?

Anyone (Ms Marsh included) that thinks her appointment is an opportunity to influence Maximus is deluding themselves.
Maximus will operate under the framework specified by the DWP as did their predecessor ATOS.

In fact Maximus might just as well be ATOS re-branded as many of their staff for this particular project have been TUPE'd over from ATOS.

Ms Marsh will be wheeled out to press conferences and be patted on the back by Esther McVey as a shining example of how the long term sick can obtain highly paid employment. All they have to do is wage an online war against the system for a couple of years and wait for a lucrative job offer to materialise.

She'll then be wheeled back to her plush little office in the stationary cupboard to continue doing the crossword.

Nice work if you can get it.

dori2o

Richard_Cranium wrote: »

Ms Marsh will be wheeled out to press conferences and be patted on the back by Esther McVey as a shining example of how the long term sick can obtain highly paid employment. All they have to do is wage an online war against the system for a couple of years and wait for a lucrative job offer to materialise.

She'll then be wheeled back to her plush little office in the stationary cupboard to continue doing the crossword.

Nice work if you can get it.

In essence she's signed up to become the Angela Knight of Welfare.

She's now an employee of a company and as such she won't be able to voice her own opinion and will have to tow the company line.

I'd be very suprised if there is not a clause in her contract that prevents her from voicing her own opinions.

She'll be told when to smile, told when to laugh and told what to say and when to say it.

I don't begrudge anyone taking any job no matter what sector it's in or whether it clashes with that persons views. But at the very least be honest abut it. The utter tripe she posted on her blog when she announced that she had been successful, of how she was going to implement change etc was simply laughable.

Why not admit that the job seemed to be interesting, she had a lot of knowledge of the role of Maximus within the WCA, and she quite fancied being £75k a year better off. I think people would have respected her more for telling it like it is rather than trying to sugar coat it.

It will be interesting to see what happens in 12/18 months time, when Maximus are deemed to be no better than ATOS, when there are various reports in the press about the WCA, about suicides resulting from WCA reports, when there are parliamentary reviews of Maximus, it will be interesting to see exactly what her response is. Will she defend the indefensible as Angela Knight has done with both the Banking and Energy sectors, or will she stand up and express her own views, maybe even walk away when she realises she's nothing more than a pawn being used by bth Maximus and the DWP?

Certainly whoever at Maximus decided to hire her has played a blinder of an ace card.

Richard_Cranium

tea-bag wrote: »

As regular readers will know, I've always been adamant that I can't take money for campaigning. I don't even have advertising on my blog.
The moment I accept the offer of some well-meaning charity, union, politician or corporation, I would become fettered by them, compromised. They would have control over what I can say or do
http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blog...-for-help.html

NYM

I'd be very suprised if there is not a clause in her contract that prevents her from voicing her own opinions.

As she has been engaged as Head of Customer Experience, who better to perform it than someone that has had direct experience of it ?

dori2o

NYM wrote: »

As she has been engaged as Head of Customer Experience, who better to perform it than someone that has had direct experience of it ?

We'll just have to see if she does make a difference. I very much doubt that she will.

As has been stated Maximus will be being guided by the DWP as to how the assessments are to take place and what percentage of people they want off the benefit.

She may have had good intentions in taking the job, she may believe that she can make a difference, if thats the case then she must believe in the tooth fairy and Father Christmas.

It will still be the case however that she will almost certainly not be allowed to voice her own opinion especially if that opinion goes against the working practices of Maximus.