The Department of Work and Pensions Committee will be investigating the Access to Work scheme and are inviting submissions from the general public about the issue.
The committee, made up of a cross-party selection of MPs, are particularly interested in:
- The AtW application and assessment processes, from the perspectives of employees and employers;
- The adequacy of ongoing support, both in terms of the aids, adaptations and support workers provided through AtW, and the help and advice offered by DWP;
- The effectiveness of AtW in supporting people with mental health conditions and learning disabilities;
- AtW’s effectiveness in terms of helping disabled people to:
- Secure a job;
- Stay in employment; and
- Develop their careers; and
- The steps taken so far by DWP to extend AtW, including its marketing and funding of the scheme.
Find out more here about how to submit evidence to the committee. The deadline is June 20th.
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Heidi K. Robertson
May 13, 2014
How are BSL users supposed to participate in this? DWP recognised BSL in 2003. English is not the first language for most of us – there should be an option for us to submit our experiences in BSL. As long as we don’t have that, we are silenced. Again.
Julie
May 13, 2014
Is Remploy’s ‘welfare to work’ the same thing as AtW?
Alison
May 13, 2014
Also ……. has anyone tried to get into the “web portal” to submit it? I don’t seem to be able to find the right place ?????
Clara Wood
May 14, 2014
I have written to my MP asking whether it is possible to send in evidence using BSL. MPs may be able to make this happen if enough of them agree.
Darren Townsend-Handscomb
June 15, 2014
DeafATW.com now has a page about the DeafATW website on the inquiry, http://www.deafatw.com/select-committee-inquiry.html to support AtW users, employers, interpreters, and anyone one else who has evidence to send.
It brings together all the information and links about the inquiry in one place in plain English, with some content in BSL, more BSL to be added Monday (I hope):
• What is the Select Committee and why is it important (with Clive in BSL).
• Suggestions about what you may want to talk about in your evidence (with Clive in BSL).
• When the evidence needs to be in.
• How to send your evidence (with links).
• The five areas the committee are most interested in looking at.
• The rules about the evidence (word document not pdf, no pictures, number paragraphs).
• Committee suggestions about how you should structure your evidence.
• A document you can download already set up with the headings and paragraph numbering.
• Whether your evidence is confidential, and what to do if you want to talk about something that is confidential.
• Information about access (you can’t yet send your evidence in BSL).
• Information about sending evidence and evidence in person.
• Links to information, including the information in Easy Read.
Please let me know if anything needs adding, or is not clear.
I’d really encourage everyone to send in evidence. Short evidence is much better than none. So if time is short, write short.
And really encourage employers to feed back as well. A few employers giving evidence about how difficult the process has been, how impossible it is to work with AtW, and something about the impact of the sudden additional costs, would have a real impact.
I’ve also copied the most frequently asked for information below:
“Evidence from organisations, employers, and most people needs to be received by THIS Friday 20th June 2014.
If English is difficult for you, then you can send your evidence to be received by Friday 18th July 2014. If you’re planning to send your evidence late, then let the committee staff know.”
“Your evidence is not confidential or private.
All of the evidence will be published on the internet. There is a lot of evidence though, so most of it probably will never be read by anyone except the Select Committee.
But if you want something to be really private, then write that separate from your evidence.
Let the Committee know that this information is confidential, and then the confidential information will be read by the Committee as background reading (just for their information), but won’t be used as evidence for the inquiry.”
Cheers darren (deafATW)