Maximus scandalises Australia – how long before it does the same in the UK?

Last Updated: March 2, 2015By
This image shows the general public feeling towards Maximus.

This image shows the general public feeling towards Maximus.

On the day when people are mobilising to protest against the appointment of Maximus to replace Atos as the principle company responsible for ensuring people can’t get sickness and disability benefits, how interesting that Johnny Void has discovered it has caused a scandal in Australia.

It seems claimants had their benefits stopped for no reason, signatures on paperwork were faked and the most marginalised claimants were parked – abandoned completely as there was no profit in helping them.

This behaviour was exposed in a documentary by ABC that you can view here.

The full article is on The Void – be warned that it features Johnny’s trademark colourful use of language.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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4 Comments

  1. casalealex March 2, 2015 at 10:39 am - Reply

    I have, on a number of occasions, used the following comment on FB:

    Maximus is an American for-profit privatizing company that provides business process services to government health and human services agencies in the United States, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom.

    Criticisms
    Nov 1997- The Hartford Courant reported that MAXIMUS “gets minimal results” when it was hired by the State of Connecticut to manage a child care program for recipients of welfare. According to the Record-Journal, MAXIMUS “hired too few people, installed an inadequate phone system and fell weeks or months behind in making payments to day care providers.””The Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) asked MAXIMUS to meet improvement goals and by December, DSS Commissioner Joyce A. Thomas noted improvements on several fronts commenting, “The good news for Connecticut’s child care providers and the families we all serve is that the situation is rapidly improving. MAXIMUS has come a long way, and we are confident that current efforts are paving the way to long-term improvements.”
    Dec 1998- The Sarasota Herald Tribune reported that the State of Florida had paid MAXIMUS $4.5 Million for a Child Support Recovery contract. MAXIMUS was only able to collect $162,000. “On average taxpayers paid MAXIMUS $25 for every 3 cents collected”.
    April 2000- A New York judge ruled that MAXIMUS “misled” the city’s Human Resources Administration about the role a former senior policy adviser to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani played in the company’s proposal for a welfare contract. Six months later, in October 2000, the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court, unanimously overturned the lower court’s ruling, stating, “There was no evidence of favoritism…There was no evidence that Maximus was afforded unfair access.”
    Oct 2000- Six state lawmakers in Wisconsin called for the termination of MAXIMUS’ W-2 contract, saying the firm has “broken faith with the state and poor people the agency serves in Milwaukee County.”
    June 2001- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that two MAXIMUS employees filed discrimination complaints against the company. The employees stated that MAXIMUS is so lacking in diversity that the companies minority employees referred to it as “White Castle”.
    July 2007- MAXIMUS settled a lawsuit brought against it by the United States government for involvement in falsifying Medicaid claims for $30.5 million.
    Oct 2010- The Los Angeles Times reported that 146 medical workers, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists were allowed to keep working despite failing drug tests. MAXIMUS was awarded a $2.5 Million a year contract to run California’s confidential “diversion programs”. MAXIMUS contracted the work out to a subcontractor who in turn subcontracted the work to another company. The drug testing company was using the wrong standard of drug test from December 2009 to August 2010, resulting in medical workers who tested positive for drugs to continue working.
    June 2011- Boston-based Fox25 news uncovered that a wanted fugitive by the name of Maureen Simonetti was working for MAXIMUS as a manager on the MassHealth project and had access to the personal information of individuals who use MassHealth for their healthcare. Simonetti’s attorney said his client disclosed pleading no contest to grand theft on her application to work at Maximus in 2005. However, the required Massachusetts background check, known as a CORI, did not uncover Simonetti’s grand theft case in Florida, which is an out of state criminal record. MAXIMUS stated that it had “no reason to believe that anyone’s personal information was used inappropriately” and terminated Simonetti.
    September 2011- MAXIMUS INC. was sued by U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for disability discrimination for failure to promote a female employee because it regarded her as disabled.MAXIMUS settled the lawsuit in August 2012.
    June 2012- Through an internal privacy audit, MAXIMUS discovered that a worker in Canada illegally viewed personal health records of 43 Canadians. The worker involved was immediately suspended and later fired. Health critic and member of the New Democratic Party Mike Farnworth said the incident was disturbing. “It’s concerning, we’ve had concerns about Maximus in the past,” he said. “I think what I would like to know – is this an isolated incident? Has it happened in the past?” Ryan Jabs, spokesman for the British Columbia Health Ministry said,”The risk is really low level because it looks like he or she was accessing the information out of curiosity but not for any fraudulent activity.”
    January 2013- A MAXIMUS employee, Marilyn Beltran, based in Boston MA was indicted for allegedly stealing more than $490,000 from the Massachusetts Medicaid program. The theft had occurred over a period of nine years.

  2. Joan Edington March 2, 2015 at 1:08 pm - Reply

    This is a great warning for the UK people but will not make an iota of difference to the government’s use of Maximus. In most of the complaint cases you mention the complainer is thinking of the bad service to their people. That means nothing to this government; in fact it probably makes them worth more since they are being purposefully used against the people.

    • shaun-127 March 2, 2015 at 10:55 pm - Reply

      Totally agree. I would add that it is my suspicion that their intention is destroy the belief people have about public services so they (the Tories) can offer private sector insurance schemes as an alternative. This is why we must always place the blame for the failures they create on their policies.

  3. John Gaines March 3, 2015 at 10:46 am - Reply

    Let us all now clamour for the arrest of ‘all politicians’ who knowingly awarded contracts to US neo-fascist criminal organisations, without due diligence:
    In Law these actions (awarding contracts to businesses who are already embroiled in criminal proceedings in other countries) is criminally negligent.

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