• Replies 5 replies
  • Subscribers 28 subscribers
  • Views 1208 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Discrimination or taken out of context?

clumsycow

I would like some advice on how to deal with what I believe to be discrimination by my daughters job seekers adviser.

My daughter is 18, unemployed and has suspected learning difficulties, that she is waiting assessment for. She has difficulties with memory, organisation and communication, she forgets things, gets dates mixed up and misses appointments.

I feel that she may have aspergers or another communication disorder and she shares some of my difficulties as I myself have dyslexia, dyspraxia and many symptoms of aspergers. As soon as I recognised her difficulties I have been fighting for a diagnosis for her and 18 months later she is still waiting.

My daughter dropped out of college as she failed her exams and she as not given the correct support by the college and I am in the process of an official complaint about this.

My daughter would like a job and is actively seeking employment and volunteers, but her self esteem and confidence are low as she failed her exams and keeps being rejected for jobs.

Due to her memory problems she missed one of her appointments with her job seekers adviser and her benefit was stopped for 5 weeks. I appealed against this and advised the job centre of her difficulties in writing and requested that she saw a disability officer, however this letter that was sent 2 months ago has been ignored. I have telephoned the job centre, but as my daughter is now 18 they will not discuss her case with me, despite being told of her difficulties.

Last week my daughter unfortunately missed another appointment with her job seekers adviser, who has informed the job centre of this, therefore she has received another letter stating that her benefits may again be affected.

I have contacted her job seekers adviser and asked him for help as I had previously made him aware of my daughters difficulties. I was shocked to receive his reply to me that stated:

       "If ****** is that ill it maybe a good idea for her to change her claim to ESA (Employment Support Allowance) instead of JSA (Job Seekers Allowance) because she obviously isn't ready for work because if her memory is that bad she wont be able to hold a job down."

I was offended by these comments and my daughter was upset, I replied to this message, stating that my daughter was not “ill” but she has some memory and learning difficulties, that I had previously advised him of and that I had asked the job centre for support that has been ignored.

I advised him that all she needs is some help organising herself and her appointments and that he wrongly has this attitude that Joanne "isn’t ready to work because her memory is that bad she couldn’t hold down a job" In fact my daughter had only missed 2 appointments in the past 6 months, I feel that this does not deserve her job seekers adviser writing her off!

I have had a reply back from him, stating that I had taken his message out of context and to visit him with my daughter to help her.

However I feel that he was discriminating against my daughter and should not continue to advise her and I am extremely offended by his comments that show ignorance to any understanding of learning difficulties.

I would like some advice on how to deal with this and to get my daughter the support she needs. I think my daughter also needs to see a disability officer at the job centre for support, however because of the job centre system, this is impossible for me to arrange as my daughter is 18 and they will only see her and speak to her on the phone and she finds it difficult explaining her difficulties.

I cannot find any other way of contacting them and they have ignored my letter, requesting support. Please could anyone advise me of a contact email address for someone who could help. Many thanks for taking the time to read this

  • My daughter got the job that she has been doing for around a week, that she is enjoying but finding hard. yesterday she had a 9 hour shift and was left on her own with too many tasks to do. She felt she couldn't cope, became anxious and had a panic attack.

    She was told to go home early and today she did not feel up to work so I called in sick for her, but this wasn't so well received. My daughter feels that she is not coping with the long hours and wants to reduce to part time. We are not sure weather to disclose now, does she have any rights if they sack her for not disclosing her anxiety?

    i have contacted her job adviser but had no reply as it is a bank holiday weekend, and advice would be much appreciated. thanks

  • clumsycow said:

    Also she has managed to secure a job interview next week but we are unsure at the moment weather or not she should disclose her difficulties in case she is discriminated against. Any advice on this?

    Difficult one that.

    If she does disclose her difficulties, they legally can not discriminate against her either in the interview, or later, should she get the job.

    However, such discrimination is often difficult, if not impossible, to prove, particularly at the interview stage (because "we felt you would not fit well in the team", is a valid, non-discriminatory, reason for not giving someone a job).

    If she does not disclose her difficulties, they may then be used as reason for dismissal should she be given the job.

    However they wouldn't explicitely state that as the reason for dismissal, because that would be discriminatory (but, again, such discrimination can be very difficult to prove).

  • Many thanks for the replies, I have looked into ESA and will help her to claim for this. I have been fighting for a formal diagnosis for the past 18 months and now she has an appointment in 3 weeks to see the local mental heath team. I am not sure if they can diagnose her, but it is step in the right direction at last.

    For now my daughter is seeing a different employment adviser today, who hopefully has more of an understanding of learning difficulties.

    Also she has managed to secure a job interview next week but we are unsure at the moment weather or not she should disclose her difficulties in case she is discriminated against. Any advice on this?

  • Hi ClumsyCow,

    DaisyGirl is correct that your daughter needs to be on ESA, as the support she requires will not be available to her whilst she's on JSA.

    However, I would strongly reccommend getting her a formal diagnosis before applying for ESA if at all possible - obviously, if she continues to lose benefits because she's struggling  to meet the demands of the JobCenter whilst on JSA, then go ahead and apply for ESA anyway, but you will find the ESA application process much easier once she has a formal diagnosis - and without one, I suspect the application will be rejected and you will have to appeal.

  • Hi,

    I think that what your daughter needs is to change to ESA.

    Jobseekers is not suitable for anyone with any extra needs. ESA is for everyone with an illness (temporary or chronic), disability or difficulty. The form that she will fill in will allow you to tell jobcentre plus of her learning difficulty and memory problems, and you can fill in the form for her.

    On the down side she will then have to go for an assessment to see which group she is in (the NAS has details of these on their pages about benefits).

    When she is in the right group she will be given an advisor who should be more ready to help and support her with her precise difficulties.

    I suspect that people on jobseekers cannot get this type of help without first going through the ESA process.

    Hope this helps, please look at the NAS benefit pages.