Access to Work = Deny individuals any support!

I think I should say a bit more on this subject.

I don't think Access to Work has quite got their heads around Autism.

They try to fob you off with 10-12 pounds an hour when their official limit is £15 an hour. But note that this has to pay for EVERYTHING including employers National Insurance, holiday pay, sick pay, any training, and any other overheads you incur because you are employing them. At 10-12 pounds an hour, this is basically minimum wage!

I have very strong objections to just paying somebody the minimum wage. But there is more: Access to Work assme that a support role is unskilled. Supporting somebody with autism is NOT unskilled and also the rate should depend on the job they are supporting.

I managed to argue for more because I knew from experience that I would not get the person I needed for so little wage. I also pointed out that a major factor in me loosing my job was because they pay too little to enable recruitment of someone of sufficient callibre. [Note the maximum they pay has not gone up in 10 years at least!]

If you are employed the onus is on your employer to find the support worker and to negociate the Access to Work bureaucracy to get the funds.

But if you are self employed or run your own business, you are in trouble

1) It is extremely difficult to get funding from Access to Work

2) Once you have fought long and hard to get the support you need, there is no help in putting that support in place. If you are lucky you will find an agency which provides support for people with autism. Otherwise you have to recruit the right person, figure out payroll, and figure out job specs, person specs, and employment contracts. If you don't this right the consequences can be very expensive.

I have managed (2) with some support from someone who runs their own company, but it was tough.

What to do is

1) Accept the money from access to work, although that will cause more difficulties in the long run. It also means that your son is in the system and you can ask for more later. I was first approved for 5 hours support a week, but have now had 10 hours a week approved. The 5 hours started on 1st November. The 10 hours have been approved from 1st December.

2) You will have to find a support worker. It may be that an agency near you can provide someone. If not you will have to find someone. In that case you have to go to (3)

(3) As a last resort you will have to find someone. But this someone will have to be an employee, which means employer liability insurance. Then you have to work out payroll. This means registering as an employer with HMRC and figuring out how PAYE works and how the HMRC real time system works. It is a steep learning curve, but not impossible. HMRC does have some useful videos to help. Now I have done it, I can help too.

(3) is what I have had to do, but I am very happy with my support work who I met at the gym I go to. As long as we get customers, the future is looking much brighter.

If you want to contact me directly, try e.guest@leedsbeckett.ac.uk I expect this address to stop working anytime so if you do want to contact me, don't delay.

Where do you live?

Regarding finding someone, ask around as best you can. I found a good person more through luck than anything else.

My support worker does not do payroll but she is helping with other admin and most importantly contacting people and figuring out social networking.

If access to work continue to cause problems, try contacting your MP. Mine made all the difference.

Aspident,

Can you email me. I've tried to contact you via NAS email facility and it will not connect. It could be user incompedence on my part.

Regards

Coogybear

God it's good to hear from someone who's had similar problems. I thought it was just me,

My son has both Aspergers and is severely Dyslexic. He was 16 when he left education due to the lack of support at his Agricultural college. He's desparate to work and has actively pursued it, along with many voluntary positions, but no employer would entertain him because of his diagnosed difficulties. He then decided that his only option was to go self-employed.

As he was only 16 at the time he couldn't get funding for support from the Princes trust or any other organisation who only consider funding support for age 18+.

Despite this, he was desparate to work and contribute to society, largely driven by the family ethos.

He approached connextions YES service. (youth employment service.) through referal from his key worker who said they'd never mentored a 16 year old before for S-Employment and didn't seem to take him seriously at first.

As is usual it seemed any support would have to be parent driven and because the YES team were a bit lost I decided to put my son through a self-employment course run by the local enterprize team. He was allowed to sit this course twice to consolidate his knowledge and put together his business idea. We then went back to YES.

He's greatly skilled with machinery, with anything manual and an accomplished driver. (he's been driving since he was 4, off road.) He explained that he'd like to do his driving test for the tractor and car so he could work locally on farms as a delivery driver and manual labouring in the community he's familiar with. They agreed to fund his tractor test, which he obviously passed first time, but relented at the 11th hour on his car practical test. I funded his theory and mentored him through the highway code, which due to the severity of his Dyslexia was extreamly difficult. He passed that on his second attempt.

After much delay and resistence (YES felt that funding his test may cause a presidence) and a whealth of evidence to proove his commitment to his goal, they agreed to fund his practical Car test. Once again, he passed 1st time. Much to the amazement of all the team at YES. Thankfully, and to their credit, they eventually came through for him, but not without much dragging of feet.

Against true odds he's managed to get to the point that he is ready to work. He's registered for tax and national insurance, partly funded a car and the horrendous car insurance costs that come with being a young driver, brought his uniform for a professional appearence and i've put together his social media sites and a website to advertise his business. So far all his reviews have been excellent and he works at a pace that suits him to minimize meltdowns and asd burnout. A perfect solution it seems.

The trouble is, that he struggles with the social communication side, managing money and many of the functional skills necessary to run a business unaided.

I started my own business three years ago from home (out of sheer necessity) so I could be availible for my boys care. Both have ASD and co-occuring difficulties, but one is often very ill and the other has night issues, so working from home was my only option. I too, only work part time because of my care commitments to both boys and my husband who had a breakdown a few years back (Although he also works part time. However, managing both boys care and one of my sons business interests as well as my own is more of a commitment than I can cope with.

Apart from the fact that I believe it would be more healthy for him to have an outside mentor, (I won't be around forever either) it would free me up to manage his personal care more effectively and not 'muddy the waters' so to speak.

Access to work said that if I was willing to accept 4 hours per week support she could write up a quick solution. The inference being that anything above 4 hours support would be too much of an effort to organise. Additionally I would have to source the mentor myself.

The truth is my son will not only need support to write out receipts etc, but help with managing accounts, finding customers, marketing and a whole host of other aspects.

Despite being severely dyslexic he's been denied a computer with assistive software because most businesses use computers. When I explained that he was denied the usual access to information because of his disability, so this was a slightly more unusual case, it was dismissed.

He's spent everything he has on getting to this point and can't fund a computer or the software, let alone a mentor. We have been asked to fund his computer for him. I've said we will get one because I don't want them to close his case, which they have threatend to do, but I have no means to provide the equipment at the specification required to run the software he needs (eg. i5, i7 and above.)

When I found the course run by NAS that they said could be funded by ATW, I was delighted. Although he's turned 17 now, it's been the only ray of hope in a long string of brick walls. Now, he can't access that either, as ATW say they don't fund group courses.

What does ATW fund exactly????

The truth is they won't tell me what he's entitled too and when I suggest support it's shot down. He needs considerable support and from someone who has business mentorship skills as well as ASD and Dyslexia awareness. Where do I source this???

In order to keep and maintain work, he needs considerable support and judgeing by his ability to take on board certain aspects and to accomplish certain everyday goals, he's going to need way more than 4 hours per week. Seems to me the government scheme is a farse...

Sorry for the long moan, but once again i'm at my wits end. As a dyslexic and diagnosed with ASD myself, I feel like the blind leading the blind. Indeed, I could do with ATW support myself truth be known. I'm not sure where to turn or who to ask for help. I'm at breaking point myself with lack of sleep and the growing demands, yet I don't want to let him down.

Any advice gratefully received.

Coogybear

I recently had a fight with Access to Work that I won!

I wanted to set up my own business but need support to get customers. At first they refused support until I had customers. I set my MP onto them and got what I wanted for a limited time to see how the business works out. I even managed to argue for more money than they normally give for a support worker so I could get a graduate.

I have had to fight at every turn to get what I need both from Access to Work and Adult Social care. I can fully understand the exhaustion and frustration. And yes it does feel as if society does not want people with autism. I am autistic and a fighter, but sometimes I wish I could just give up (but that is not in my personality).

As a parent your only real solution seems to be to start up a business that employs your children (and others with autism). Unless you are lucky enough to live in a area where there is a company that actively recruits people with autism.

That is precisely why I am trying to set up my own business(es). If you are interested in working with me on this, please contact me (or even if you just want to build up something to put pressure on Access to Work.)