The Minister for Disabled People, Mike Penning MP, has today announced a review of the impact of Access to Work on deaf people. The three month review will take place over the summer and involve key organisations working with and for deaf people.
The announcement follows the launch of the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s general inquiry into Access to Work. The idea for the review was developed by the UK Council on Deafness and presented to the Minister by Stephen Lloyd MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Deafness.
In a meeting with representatives of the UK Council on Deafness, the Minister also suspended the rule that has restricted deaf people’s access to communication support such as sign language interpreters.
The ’30 hour rule’ will not be applied to any new claims to Access to Work during the review. And anyone whose support was reduced due to the application of the rule can have it reviewed.
Describing it as “the arbitrary rule on 30 hours”, the Minister said he was not comfortable with it after UK Council on Deafness members and his constituents had told him about deaf people beginning to lose their jobs.
The rule said that someone needing more than 30 hours communication support a week could only claim at an hourly rate equivalent to a £30,000 salary. That is significantly below the market hourly rate for a sign language interpreter.
It means deaf people have been struggling to find communication support and therefore do their jobs. In some cases employers have been unable to keep their deaf employees.
Jim Edwards, chair of the UK Council on Deafness, said: “This is excellent news for deaf people who are in work or trying to find it. It’s also a great example of what deaf people and the organisations who work for and with them can achieve when we pull together.
“We now look forward to working with the Minister to deliver the review. Mike was clear he cannot do it without us.
“The first step is to tell him about the other problems that are affecting deaf people at the moment. As well as suspending the 30 hour rule, there may be other immediate action he can take.”
A spokesperson for the Stop Changes to Access to Work Campaign, a group that launched a petition against the changes, said:
The Stop Changes to AtW campaign are delighted at the announcement of the suspension of the 30 hour rule, and the announcement of an inquiry into the impact of AtW on Deaf people.
“We will contribute to the inquiry, as well as the the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s general inquiry into Access to Work, and support Deaf people to contribute as well.
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Darren Townsend-Handscomb
May 14, 2014
This is brilliant news, especially along side the Select Committee inquiry into AtW.
Congratulations to UKCoD and Stop the Changes campaign for all their hard work in this, and to all those who have complained or written to their MPs. It’s your combined pressure that has made this happen.
But it is only a 3 month suspension of the 30 hour ‘rule’ for Deaf people. One way to see if they mean what they say is to watch and see how quickly AtW process reviews for people already negatively affected by the 30 hour ‘rule’.
If you’ve been affected by the 30 hour review, continue with your complaint as it probably is about more than just this issue, put the minister’s statement to the test, and contact AtW asap to ask them to review you AtW package in light of the minister’s announcement today (“The ’30 hour rule’ will not be applied to any new claims to Access to Work during the review. And anyone whose support was reduced due to the application of the rule can have it reviewed.”) I’d also ask them what the time scale is for the review.
Let us know how that goes, and whether AtW attitudes have changed. If you want to remain anonymous, contact me at DeafATW.com and I’ll do it for you.
However in the short term this doesn’t address all the other issues, the bullying, back dating of changes, arbitrary restrictions, etc.
It is also really important that Deaf AtW users contribute to the Select Committee inquiry, and the AtW inquiry. This isn’t the war won, but maybe a battle of strategic importance, if we can take advantage of it.
We’ll also need to wait to see if this is a meaningful review, genuinely looking at Deaf people’s work needs, and involving Deaf AtW users appropriately, or just a stalling for time strategy.
Dave Wycherley (@weebitchilly)
May 15, 2014
The other concern is the cap on hourly rate. There seems to be a fixed cap of £25p/h to include travel which is being applied by some advisors, and not others. The worrying fact that this alongside the 30 Hour Rule will continue to affect potential employability of Deaf people. I agree with Darren that this need to be a meaningful enquiry, rather than just stalling tactics.
Monkey Magic
May 15, 2014
I’ve heard tales of much lower hourly rates or attempts to force CSWs onto Deaf people. It’s incredible that ATW are actually assuming that all CSWs would even want to do the work of an interpreter. Whilst it is a worry I would hope that many are trained enough to know that they would be out of their depth. I think it’s also worth feeding into the select committee our experiences of dealing with ATW and how they have left themselves wide open to misinterpretation and fraud – it is their systems that are weak and they have left themselves wide open to misunderstanding and abuse, intentional and unintentional.
Tim
May 15, 2014
It’s the very least that Stephen Lloyd can do after voting for social security cuts for Deaf people. And if the Liberal Democrats were not propping up this unelected Tory government, none of the problems would likely have occurred in the first place.
Alexia Blohm-Pain
May 15, 2014
I would hope that as part of this review, the issue of training for AtW officers dealing with claims for Deaf people is addressed. Many aren’t fully aware of the issues and implications of being a Deaf person in employment and their communication requirements.
Matt Brown
May 15, 2014
I’m fully intending to respond to the inquiry with full details of the incompetence of ATW assessors that I’ve witnessed (“But you sound like you can use the phone OK”), the total inability of ATW staff to explain the scheme to employers, the massive holes in their postbags that causes correspondence to vanish with suspicous regularity and the total inconsistency in payment arrangements that confuse most people and encourage skimming and a general massaging of books.
I’m also not going to be shy about describing, in as much detail as I can while still respecting confidentiality, the many times during 2012-2013 that I sat around in Deaf professionals’ workplaces doing bugger all for hours and hours and hours on end, waiting for something to happen while agencies took up to a 100% commission on my earnings. Every minute I could hear the till ringing. Kerching. Kerching. Kerching.
Until this system is completely reformed and made transparent I am not accepting any new ATW assignments. I would rather work for half the money in another sector than be complicit with this farce. If that means I end up with no work, so be it, I’ll wipe tables.
Darren Townsend-Handscomb
June 11, 2014
Hi Matt, I hope when you feed back to the inquiry re the ‘hours sitting doing bugger all’ that you’ll include the Deaf person’s perspectives on that situation, and some explanation as to why you think this occurs?
Sometimes those hours result from AtW having an inflexible approach to provision – e.g. not allowing the Deaf person to use remote interpreting, or be flexible in how they use their hours according to need.
Sometimes these hours result from the Deaf person not knowing what they can have to meet their needs.
Sometimes these hours are the result of fear, the Deaf person not feeling confident and able, with good reason, to be honest with AtW about their needs and how to meet them, so they go for blanket provision in case.
And sometimes it’s because it’s absolutely what the Deaf person and job needs – for example where there’s unpredictable and occasional interpreting required, but remote interpreting not an option, or where the workload is unpredictable with short notice bookings and cancellations, or where the office ‘chatter’ is part of effective team working and the Deaf person’s career development.
We can’t assume that the select committee, or DWP/AtW will understand these issues unless made explicit, and just saying it’s a waste if time and money is likely to result in less resources and flexibility, not more flexible provision meeting Deaf AtW users work access needs.
Sue MacLaine
June 10, 2014
Matt Brown.. I think you are right to not accept anymore ATW bookings or indeed any other bookings as a sign language interpreter. If you see being an ATW interpreter as ‘waiting for something to happen’ this is not the job for you. If your brain power is taken up, while on an assignment, by your anger with agencies than the job is not for you. If you think you are doing ‘bugger all’ then this job is not for you. Wishing you all the very best in your future career.