A BBC News report, aired on Wednesday evening, has shown an anonymous Access to Work adviser talking of a “culture shift” at the scheme in 2011, saying:
We were checking rather than supporting, we weren’t asking how can we help you? We were looking at how to possibly even try to catch you out or restrict you.
The item also says that the number of successful applicants to the scheme has fallen by 25%.
You can see the video below. There are subtitles on the video, but they are difficult to read, so there is also a transcript of this video below thanks to BBC See Hear:
Transcript courtesy of BBC See Hear:
NIKKI FOX
Businesswoman and actress, Julie Fernandez, best known for her role in The Office works six days a week in her craft shop.
She has brittle bone disease and needs help to do the things she can’t physically do.
JULIE
The only way that I can work full time is to have a full-time support worker, so Access to work gives me the work to give me the funds to pay the wages of people to be my support worker.
NIKKI FOX
But there’s now growing concerns that changes to the scheme are putting disabled people’s jobs at risk.
A former access to work advisor agreed to speak to the BBC anonymously to protect his colleagues.
He told me there’d been a cultural shift, which began since 2011.
ACCESS TO WORK EMPLOYEE
We were checking rather than supporting, we weren’t asking how can we help you? We were looking at how to possibly even try to catch you out or restrict you.
NIKKI FOX
The number of new successful applicants has dropped by nearly twenty-five per cent from more than sixteen thousand to twelve thousand six hundred, while the actual spend on Access to work fell from one hundred and five million pounds to ninety-nine million.
However the government says it spent an extra fifteen million pounds in the past financial year.
Mark Harper MP
There have been some problems, its fair to see about how we’ve brought the system to fewer locations but now those problems have been sorted out, the customer service levels are improving again and I’m making sure that we keep delivering good customer service to those people that depend on access to work
Both for those in work and those who need to get into work.
NIKKI FOX
One man who needs support is Steve, profoundly deaf he requires an interpreter so that he can work full time at his local authority but Access to work will only pay for someone who works for four days out of five.
STEVE:
It does mean that people forget I’m there and I just spend most of the day focusing on paperwork and not talking to anybody and it can be quite lonely.
NIKKI FOX
Julie’s funding is secure for another three years allowing her to expand her business but many more are waiting to hear whether their support can continue – allowing them to keep working.
Nicki Fox, BBC news
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pennybsl
October 31, 2014
🙁
To think we taxpayers PAY those people to do their jobs……they abused and betrayed us honest workers and our employers in this hidden agenda.
Cathy
October 31, 2014
I don’t understand why ATW say someone must work 4 days instead of 5??? Full time is more than 4 days, so does this mean you can only work part time instead of full time? Is this not discriminatory? Should disabled people be taking ATW to court under the Equality Act 2010? This state of affairs should be unheard of in Great Britain 2014!
Personally, I am battling to get support for voluntary teaching to gain experience, but it is practically impossible! In the light of this fiasco it would mean I could only teach for 4 days and not 5!! What right do they have to do this to us????
Support should be given on merit and for however many days are required. It is discriminatory to do otherwise and how would a disabled person carry out overtime???
I sincerely hope a deaf person will take ATW to court because they are not abiding by the Equality Act in any shape or form. It is a strong case, because no hearing person would stand for somebody telling them you can only do 4 days a week!!! They would soon tell them where to get off!!!
And what is all this nonsense about getting “caught out?” Caught doing what??? Interpreters fees are out of deaf people’s hands, so if any diddling is going on it is not the deaf person’s fault but the interpreter!!!
If ATW reckon cost are ballooning out of control then it is time to cut the cost of the interpreters NOT the deaf person’s hours!!!!!
Penny Ledger
November 1, 2014
So what has happened to all the money supposed to have been diverted from Remploy to helping people in open employment?
Neil
November 2, 2014
The problem is not the number of days ,but the costs and the effect on a limited budget. Access to Work are trying to lower interpreter costs ,but the problem is there are not enough interpreters to do the necessary work,therefore costs inflate as market forces dictate the cost of an hours support,
Paul
January 22, 2015
I applied for an ATW Grant and was given a confirmation letter so I gave the garage to go ahead adapting a van to enable me to get my wheelchair in so I could get to work. Few months later ATW contacted me to say they had changed the criteria and would not be paying for the adaption done. Now I have a vehicle in the garage and no way of paying for the adaptions ATW were gong to give the grant for or getting to work. I have been fighting this for 6 months and recording all the calls that are a researchers gold. Today I called ATW and I have this recorded Doesn’t matter if you meet our criteria its upto the advisor dealing with your claim if they want to give you a GRANT OR NOT. SO IF YOU APPLY TO ATW ALL I CAN SAY IS HOPE THE PERSON ASSESSING YOU IS IN A GOOD MOOD. I am putting out a full blog with all the recordings on between me and Access To Work. All they do is fob you off and keep moving the goal posts and I have proof of this. I am wheelchair bound and have paid into the state for 18 years now I need some help from ATW to get back to work and have been let down and looking like I maybe homeless if I cant get a job to pay the bills please contact me on this address as the other one doesn’t work fight4work@btinternet.com MARK HARPER MP if you think all your issues are sorted listen to the recordings then tell me you have no issues
Neil Pack
January 22, 2015
What did the confirmation letter state?
Once granted unless you have left it for a long time to get the work done ATW normally honoured a award. That’s why you need to be certain the confirmation is an award.
Paul
January 23, 2015
Hi Neil the letter stated ATW would give me the grant, I then got the garage to go ahead on good faith as the letter stated ATW would pay the grant. As the adaptions were not straight forward they took some time but I have all the emails between myself and the ATW advisor in Scotland letting them know the progress and they stated they were happy with this as I had kept them informed at every stage of the adaptions. They stated that the reasons why they cancelled the grant was because the advisor who initially took the information did not follow the correct procedures and had not asked specific questions. I filled in and have copies of the information that was asked. So this has been ongoing for over 8 months now with me having to provide them with more information to finally be told yesterday and the call was recorded for legal purposes, they stated they will not be re considering my grant. I specifically asked the decision maker, what do I need to do now as I cant work without this transport. I was advised to re submit a new claim with everything all over again. I then specifically asked so if all the information is together that should mean I should get the grant? Her reply and not forgetting this is recorded NO all grants are at the discretion of the advisor. I then asked do you not follow the same procedures and guidelines to which she said yes but the grant is at the discretion of the advisor. What does that say??
Neil Pack
January 24, 2015
Hello Paul
It comes down to guidance and how’s its applied. I would not accept the reason of application of guidance correctly in its entirety, as a colleague would have to have approved the fund once created. If you have an award letter,I would query who countersigned that approval as that would imply that there decision was incorrect as well?
As I don’t know what you had adapted ,it’s difficult to comment ,but I would imagine changes not publicised to the guidance, have been applied after the award.
If the adaptions were made before the query over the correct decision ,could you not ask for a compensation payment as its not your fault that the decision was incorrect?
Did you receive forms to claim the costs back?
Discretion is not a criteria to make a decision. There is guidance to support a decision but a decision in general should be the same.
Neil
Paul
January 29, 2015
Hello Neil
I had set up a consultancy business so I could work around my issues I have with my disability, having work for 2 large organisations for 18 years and being made redundant. Once I applied my claim was dealt with by the office in Scotland so to have been granted the grant to make my van wheelchair accessible I would have had to meet the initial criteria, hence giving the garage the go ahead to do the adaptions. Without the grant letter or should I say contract of agreement I would not have given the garage the nod. ATW aside jobcentre also pressurising to apply for jobs, simple equation when wheelchair bound is should I have got a job through them then how would I have got to work? Am I missing a trick that they are Called Access To Work. Anyway I digress, as the adaptions were bespoke and not straight forward they were going to take a while as parts coming from abroad and the adaptions were specifically a wheelchair lift to lift me in my wheelchair into the vehicle. Again when applying it wasn’t just a case of I need adaptions sure there’s your grant my working criteria was assessed. So if the decision was incorrect they had 5 months to contact me. As they were fully aware that the adaptions would take time possible longer than their criteria time I made sure I kept them informed at all time, email trails are a great thing and they had acknowledged this. The issues began when ATW Scotland were all made redundant. As your point suggests this was probably an internal change however if you google Access To Work and see the amount of people who have suddenly had issues you begin to wonder how or if they have been audited. Most large organisations I know of and worked in one of the biggest have a complaints process. As you know ATW does not have one that’s even stated on their literature. To be factual they have a complaints procedure but it does not get dealt with as an individual case just process. My MP has written 3 letters and had the same answer. I don’t genially believe hype until I have experienced an issue. If a builder gave you a contract to build a house you would expect him to finish it, otherwise you can hold them accountable. The claim forms were filled in from the start and the decision to pull the grant was made 6 weeks before completion. Access to work had over 4 months, as the Grant letter is A Legal Contract I may have no other way but to go through the courts.
https://www.facebook.com/Fight4work
http://www.fight4work.com/
Regards
Paul
Neil Pack
January 30, 2015
Hello Paul,
Thanks for the links.
What reason have they given you for not accepting your application.
Please See the link below?
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/289116/work-choice-annex5.pdf
The whole question is not eligibility, but can you prove that your business or self employment is profitable.
I can appreciate you are a new work starter on permitted work ,but there was a lead to question non profit making businesses, about a year ago There was assessment of earning being decided based on earning at least minimum wage after costs, as a criteria to support an application.
All a bit silly ,when a new business is not going to leap into profitability ,instantaneously.
So my gut feeling is that unless the guidance has changed ,that AtW won’t support a grant for a applicant on permitted work ,not making sufficient incomes to be self sufficient ,leading to coming off benefits at the end of a 12 month period on permitted work.
I can appreciate that all businesses generally start small ,but have AtW suggested and discussed all travel to work options whilst on permitted work? I.e taxis or support worker driver? Will ATW apply the earnings rule irrespective of what situation,whilst on permitted work ,for any element of access to work support ,if your business is construed to be non profitable from day one?
Regards,
Neil
Kes
January 31, 2015
I have never read so much drival.
All you do neil is skirt around the issues and questions.
Do you work for atw???
Paul
January 31, 2015
I am taking it by your replies you work for Access To Work? Let me ask you a question at a time because you seem to skirt around the issues.
Having been awarded a grant letter, confirmed by a solicitor and MP in the eyes of the law this is classed as a Contract of agreement?
Neil Pack
February 1, 2015
Hello Paul,
I am a former Access to Work Adviser of 6 years experience who lost his job on the business relocating to three central sites.
I finished work June 2015 around the time you started having your problems.
I can’t answer your question as this is a legal question over contracting ,for which I have no training or experience.
Your whole issue to me comes down to whether ATW felt after the decision that the spend was justified on the principle of earnings to business success. This is a very difficult decision to make on future incomes. Personally I would have asked for future work bookings and likely profiled incomes for a forward period. The problem is you wanted a one off cost and if your business was not profit making you can see why they were hesitant to take on the cost when on ESA.
Would this have been questioned if you were not on ESA or coming off ESA?
It would be good to ask an adviser the process now used to assess business viability linked to profitability if that is the reason for refusal?
I wish you well on your continued battle. I have no real axe to grind with ATW just that the people we ably supported are given the continued service and resolution we used to provide.
Regards,
Neil
Paul
February 1, 2015
Your words……I finished work June 2015, is that you being a typical ATW Advisor and giving me incorrect information again or miss typed as how could you have finished there when we are only in February?
Ok so let’s go back to single questions that way it’s easier.
Do you think when a grant letter is awarded that is ATW saying they will pay ?
Neil Pack
February 1, 2015
Sorry Paul a genuine typo. I finished like 120 of my colleagues in June 2014.
There was a change in award process from Dec 2013.
An award was made pending you signing the paperwork ,and returning it to Access to Work.
Once the award letter was returned claim forms would be issued to claim for the work to be completed. There was a time limit of 6 months to claim for the award.
So if you have an award letter ,was this process followed?
Regards,
Neil