UNUM

UNUM or Unum Group (formerly UnumProvident Corporation) is an insurance company operating in several countries including the United States and the United Kingdom. UNUM UK describes itself as an "employee benefits provider" and provides illness and disability benefits, including ill health retirement pensions.

ME/CFS and UK welfare reforms

• In 2007 Malcolm Hooper claimed to the UK parliament that UNUM's CFS Management Plan Stated "UNUM stands to lose millions if we do not move quickly to address this increasing problem". This report also claimed that chronic fatigue syndrome was "neurosis under a new banner".
• In 2007 the BBC reported on the connections between UNUM in relation to the UK welfare reforms . It was removed later when researchers began referencing it but the transcript was preserved.
• In 2008 Jonathan Rutherford examined the connections between Unum and the UK government to reduce eligibility for sickness benefits in New Labour, the market state,and the end of welfare and in the Guardian article E pluribus Unum .
• In 2011 Private Eye examined Unum's media campaign promoted as the answer to the latest tough welfare reforms .
• In January 2015 Mo Steward published The influence of the private insurance industry on the UK welfare reforms which examines the insurance industry and in particular Unum's connection to the BPS model and welfare reforms.

PACE trial

A number of researchers who have been paid to advise Unum on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome claims were authors of the controversial PACE trial, including principal investigator Michael Sharpe. This conflict of interest was not disclosed to PACE trial participants.

Online presence

Website

UK Website

Learn more

• Wikipedia - UNUM
• The Centre for Welfare Reform

• Overview of Unum's business and the influence on UK welfard and disability
• A Tale of two Models: Disabled People vs Unum, Atos, Government and Disability Charities
• Rogue company Unum had a profiteering hand in the government’s work, health and disability green paper
• Private Eye Issue 1301 Mutual Benefits
• From the British Welfare State to another American State
• Getting rich on disability denial

See also

• Ethical issues
• Stigma and discrimination
• Mansel Aylward
• Michael Sharpe
• Simon Wessely
• Biopsychosocial model
• Department for Work and Pensions
• PACE trial

See myalgic encephalomyelitis.

See chronic fatigue syndrome.

biopsychosocial model (BPS) - A school of thought, usually based in psychology, which claims illness and disease to be the result of the intermingling of biological, psychological and social causes. (Learn more: me-pedia.org)

PACE trial A controversial study which claimed that CBT and GET were effective in treating "CFS/ME", despite the fact that its own data did not support this conclusion. Its results and methodology were widely disputed by patients, scientists, and the peer-reviewed scientific literature.