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Access to work: Is it denying Access to work?

Coogybear

I have a 16; now seventeen year old, son with ASD and co-occuring learning difficulties.

His FE experience has been extreamly poor despite a learning disability assessment and earlier this year he was at breaking point with the stress of education and the lack of support given by the College.

At the eleventh hour this Sept, he decided to walk away from education altogether.

He was given three options, Apprenticeship, find work or go on the dole!

After a long string of job rejections over the Summer, he felt his only option was to go self-employed, but this option was never presented to him by any of the agencies.

The YES Team (youth employment team) have been helpful in some respects, but admit they have never mentored a 16 year old for self-employment before. Princes Trust and other charitable organizations will only help over 18's with such support. This potentially meant my son became a NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training.)

He did a Summer of voluntary work, which roughly translated to slave labour and was being ushered into the Apprenticeship option at every oppotunity by any government organisation he approached. Given that he had left education due to the stress of the lack of support in the college environment and that apprenticeship incorperates a compulsory educational component, this was not an option for him!

He's insisted he doesn't want to be unemployed until he's 18 in order to be taken seriously for self-employment, so he's forged ahead despite the barriers.

Access to Work, the £80m-a-year scheme that provides technology and other assistance to disabled workers is the only option left for him as it allows applications from 16 year olds up, employed or self-employed and those in receipt of DLA, (not some other benefits such as Incapacity Benefit, ESA, SDA, Income Support or national Insurance credits.) 

The problem lies with the interpretation of the guidlines by some ATW staff, the vagueness of the support offered and the cuts that have now been implimented which act as a barrier to the very support it was meant to provide those with disabilities.

My son has severely Dyslexic, but now cannot get support with a laptop or assistive software that would give him Access to Work, as it is deemed that most laptops have this facility and that most employers would provide a laptop as a 'reasonable adjustment.'

This takes no account of whether the particular assistive software program is appropriate for the person with a disability or whether their auditory processing difficulties prevent them from using such a basic program. Additionally. it sites that most employers would provide a laptop. What happens then if you are self-employed?

These cuts are just a few of many implimented along with severe cuts to support for those who are deaf and those like my son who will require a support worker to help them attain and maintain work.

Another issue highlighted recently in the Disability News service is that those who are eligable for ATW Support are mainly in receipt of DLA as their only qualifying benefit, but they have to pay NI Contributions in order to qualify for ATW. Apparently, many in reciept of DLA are actually NI exempt by the DWP. If this is the case, how does that work? The only benefit that entiltes you actually precludes you from claiming ATW?

This link gives an example of a high profile, self-employed individual that has struggled with the red tape of ATW.

disabilitynewsservice.com/.../

In this link it states that their are procedures for challenging individual decisions.

www.abilitymagazine.org.uk/.../Article-108-3.aspx

yet in the ATW Leaflet it states in 'How do I appeal against an Access to Work decision?' 

There is no statutory entitlement to Access to Work and so there is no formal appeal procedure. However, an Access to Work manager can look at your decision again.

Well which is it? Can you appeal a decision or not? If this scheme has an £80 Million pound a year price tag, should it not have a formal appeal procedure?

The final link from Disability Now, shows how stressful and slow the whole process is.

www.disabilitynow.org.uk/.../atw-denying-access-work

When struggling with managing such disabilties are those most entiltled to such help even going to apply? And if so, what real help will they get for their disability?

Is deciding which disability you are going to help, not in fact, disability discimination?

Our journey has only just begun, but it doesn't bode well...Frown

Parents

  • Unfortunately, this is why university seems like a good option - there is a requirement imposed on universities, however inconsistent and muddled the manifestations, to provide a supportive environment. After graduation job-hunting however can prove just as bad as the situation you have now.

    There are not many work or training environments otherwise geared up to autistic spectrum (NAS wake up).

    Papers on the Disability Equality Duty for Universities made an interesting observation. While as many as 10% of students may have a disability, the number of higher education teaching staff with a disclosed disability is less than 1%m, and disabled staff report having a difficult time. The message seems to be, people with a disability can study here, but don't expect a job here afterwards.

    That little insight though reflects the general pattern.

    With finding work without a post-school qualification, explore on job training other than apprenticeship. A lot of trades still rely on city & guilds/HNC/advanced certificates as an aid to promotion, where work-based learning and assessment in the workplace is used.

    Take for example the Cleaning Industry. I'm not suggesting low paid casual anti-social hours cleaning, but career cleaning. Cleaning is vital, even if under-respected, and the management of cleaning services at all levels is a valuable and respected profession. The people to contact about opportunities, in the first instance, are the British Institute of Cleaning Science, based in Northampton.

    Now that was an example. There are lots of jobs out there covering essential services - wastes management isn't just about emptying dustbins, and there's a Chartered Institute of Wastes Managers addressing things like good landfill practice, industrial waste disposal including such things as packaging waste, concrete and brick waste, chemical disposal etc., and there are qualifications - HNC and undergraduate.

    Construction nowadays includes janatorial and infrastructure management of the completed buuildings for their lifetimes. There are a whole range of environmental and land management sectors. Then various aspects of hospital work, estates management......

    For every job you can think of that involves many people on low pay, there is another side that takes on more responsibility and training and gets higher pay and career prospects.

    So it isn't just about apprenticeships, though the Government likes to push this idea. You can get into jobs with prospects where training is day release, or distance learning that isn't so pressured. There are lots of jobs where you can progress doing something fairly solitary, or less pressured teamwork.

    It used to be you just had to look up Sector Skills Councils for lots of lists of in-work training schemes. Our beloved (huh!) Coalition Government has scrapped a lot of this and not got round to replacing them properly, but you can still track down the Sector Skills Councils on line. FISSS.ORG seems to be one viable option fisss.org/.../ but it has teething troubles. It should open a list of Sector Skills Councils.

    Understanding of disability is varied in these organisations. However they cover trades that take on a fair number of staff with disability. It is worth exploring.

    Sadly the Coalition Government's ideas on disability employment remain clearly marooned in cloud cuckoo land.

Reply

  • Unfortunately, this is why university seems like a good option - there is a requirement imposed on universities, however inconsistent and muddled the manifestations, to provide a supportive environment. After graduation job-hunting however can prove just as bad as the situation you have now.

    There are not many work or training environments otherwise geared up to autistic spectrum (NAS wake up).

    Papers on the Disability Equality Duty for Universities made an interesting observation. While as many as 10% of students may have a disability, the number of higher education teaching staff with a disclosed disability is less than 1%m, and disabled staff report having a difficult time. The message seems to be, people with a disability can study here, but don't expect a job here afterwards.

    That little insight though reflects the general pattern.

    With finding work without a post-school qualification, explore on job training other than apprenticeship. A lot of trades still rely on city & guilds/HNC/advanced certificates as an aid to promotion, where work-based learning and assessment in the workplace is used.

    Take for example the Cleaning Industry. I'm not suggesting low paid casual anti-social hours cleaning, but career cleaning. Cleaning is vital, even if under-respected, and the management of cleaning services at all levels is a valuable and respected profession. The people to contact about opportunities, in the first instance, are the British Institute of Cleaning Science, based in Northampton.

    Now that was an example. There are lots of jobs out there covering essential services - wastes management isn't just about emptying dustbins, and there's a Chartered Institute of Wastes Managers addressing things like good landfill practice, industrial waste disposal including such things as packaging waste, concrete and brick waste, chemical disposal etc., and there are qualifications - HNC and undergraduate.

    Construction nowadays includes janatorial and infrastructure management of the completed buuildings for their lifetimes. There are a whole range of environmental and land management sectors. Then various aspects of hospital work, estates management......

    For every job you can think of that involves many people on low pay, there is another side that takes on more responsibility and training and gets higher pay and career prospects.

    So it isn't just about apprenticeships, though the Government likes to push this idea. You can get into jobs with prospects where training is day release, or distance learning that isn't so pressured. There are lots of jobs where you can progress doing something fairly solitary, or less pressured teamwork.

    It used to be you just had to look up Sector Skills Councils for lots of lists of in-work training schemes. Our beloved (huh!) Coalition Government has scrapped a lot of this and not got round to replacing them properly, but you can still track down the Sector Skills Councils on line. FISSS.ORG seems to be one viable option fisss.org/.../ but it has teething troubles. It should open a list of Sector Skills Councils.

    Understanding of disability is varied in these organisations. However they cover trades that take on a fair number of staff with disability. It is worth exploring.

    Sadly the Coalition Government's ideas on disability employment remain clearly marooned in cloud cuckoo land.

Children
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