A new petition asking people to help stop changes to Access to Work has attracted nearly 1,500 signatures within 48 hours.
The petition, which is directed at Sir Malcolm Bruce and Iain Duncan Smith, says that “Deaf and hard of hearing people are being restricted to unrealistic salaried budgets that do not meet their support needs.”
It continues:
For Deaf people, this means lack of choice and control, and interferes with the boundaries and relationship with both interpreters and colleagues. Deaf peoples needs are not being met and their ability to work is being severely impeded. It would add another barrier to employment, as employers would be employing two new staff members to carry out one role.
For interpreters, they would become deskilled, unable to continue to work in several domains, and receive no training or adequate supervision. There would be an erosion of boundaries and relationships with clients would be affected.
There has been no consultation with either Deaf people or interpreters. There are not enough qualified interpreters to fulfil this change. Deaf people’s needs in other areas (eg access to health appointments, police, education etc), would be affected.
To sign the petition, click here: http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-changes-to-access-to-work
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pennybsl
November 12, 2013
What is happening today? Thanks, 38 Degrees and ‘imping Chick, for bringing up this significant issue.
Democracy, Equality, Inclusion, Wider Participation are all falling apart at Government and local government levels – despite the last 3 decades’ tremendous progress to enable levels of sustainable employment of Deaf & Disabled people within the UK. We help pay tax and council tax!!!!!!
It is shocking that the sensible route of proper consultation was not carried out – we could achieve a cost-effective and professional-maintaining outcome for everyone – AtW, Deaf workers and the range of our amazing communication support professionals.
Inclusion and inclusive leadership mean NOTHING without this support.
colinthomson888@aol.com
November 12, 2013
Suzie Jones
Friends. Please do not sign the ATW petition that is making rounds now. It is addressing Malcolm Bruce , who has nothing to do with it an in fact is bad for our efforts. Also there are other issues namely not addressing problems all deaf people have regardless who provides their communication support, STTR, Lipspeaker, Notetaker or Sign Language Interpreter. I have already asked for my name to be removed unless the changes are made to it.
Smarty
November 12, 2013
I agree with the above comment. The petition has been badly drafted and its not clear what the issue it is trying to address. Hundreds of people have already signed it without even really knowing what the exact problem is.
I have ATW funding and I’m not aware of any changes that are being made. Until they are offically annouced, this petition is a pointless effort!
Catherine Finch
November 12, 2013
Is there a link to further information about the changes and how it will affect deaf people please?
Linda Richards
November 12, 2013
This is an ill-thought out petition and move. I won’t be signing it. The cuts are awful but, as I’ve said on FB, why is this going to Malcolm Bruce? It refers to changes that have been made but doesn’t explain them. What is the solution that is proposed? What have the other Deaf organisations been doing? Why have the DWP/AtW adopted as practice the recommendations of a non-Deaf led organisations to form new rules? Not everyone is affected but they will be when their AtW award is up for review. (By the way, apparently, AtW will actually contribute to overheads on top of the salary). What happened to the AtW working party? Who wrote this? This has been on the cards for two years…. Yes, let’s campaign but be clear about what we are campaigning for!
Peter Jones
November 12, 2013
Correction! The petition has over 1500 names but hasn’t even been running for 24 hours yet!
It addresses Malcolm Bruce because he is the Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group on Deafness. It is specifically a campaign about BSL language users. This is stated very clearly.
Paul
November 12, 2013
While I support the petition in principle, I think the 38 Degrees petition is a completely wrong campaigning platform as no-one from the DWP or the government would read or even acknowledge a 38 Degrees petition.
Someone should submit a government official e-petition (http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/) so the DWP have to acknowledge the petition. They may have to engage with the deaf community if the petition attracts support.
Linda Richards
November 12, 2013
Agree with Paul. Would have been better to have done a government official petition. When you hit a certain number of signatories on that, they HAVE to respond to it.