Action on Hearing Loss (formerly RNID) and other leading deaf organisations including the British Deaf Association (BDA) are urgently calling on the government to reassess cost-cutting policy changes to their Access to Work scheme, which they say are creating barriers to employing deaf people and preventing them from playing a full role in the workplace in the future.
With deaf people already four times more likely to be unemployed, the change in policy will not only restrict their access to communication support but will also increase costs for employers that could force people with hearing loss out of work. Early reports suggest these new measures could cost employers an extra £10,000 per deaf member of staff.
Currently the government-funded initiative provides deaf employees with up to 30 hours of communication support per week, however the scheme is moving deaf people to employ full-time salaried communication support, rather than freelance support, restricting the range of support deaf people need and the flexibility that they rely upon.
Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss, Paul Breckell, said: ‘It’s totally unrealistic for the 3.7 million deaf workers in the UK to recruit a full-time communication support worker. The type of support someone needs might vary from day today and there are real problems in terms of the number of qualified professionals available – from little more than 1,000 British Sign Language interpreters to just 25 speech-to-text reporters.
‘These unworkable changes will damage the flexibility that deaf people require at work and transfer additional, unsustainable costs to employers. The government are creating a perfect storm by unnecessarily complicating a policy that deaf and disabled people across the UK rely on.’
David Buxton, Chief Executive of the British Deaf Association, said: ‘We are very concerned that deaf and hard of hearing Access to Work users were not properly consulted about the new 30 hours a week rule. We know some users who are following this new policy have said it creates more barriers on top of those that they already face such. That’s why we have come together to request an urgent meeting to resolve this matter and ensure that no one who is deaf or hard of hearing users struggles in their own jobs and are as equal as their own hearing peers.’
In response to concerns from the deaf community, supporters and partners, Action on Hearing Loss, the British Deaf Association and Action Deafness and four other deaf organisations have written to the Head of the Access to Work Programme and Minister for Disabled People demanding immediate action.
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Hartmut
November 26, 2013
In the USA, the ADA law requires in one clause the employers to provide and pay for reasonable accommodations for their disabled employees. That was a problem for them only in the beginning of the law’s implementation. Not any more now. Small firms can plead poverty and request financial assistance. These must prove poverty by showing last year’s tax return. The governental rehabilitation agencies or services usually pay for such communication support during the initial phase of employment.
Would such an arrangement work in the UK? I think so. Enterprises, institutions, and government at any level already are paying for the reasonable accommodations out of their pockets. They do pay for the ramps and elevators themselves anyway. Subtitling are paid by BBC and pictures production firms. They are business expenses and can either be deducted to minimize taxable profit or be treated as a tax credit, this as an incentive to obey the law and employ disabled persons.
Hartmut
Andy. Not him, me.
November 26, 2013
A point that needs making here is that deaf people do not have the flexibility to tighten our belts. We are already scraping along well below our capabilities to begin with. This is not our fault, it’s due to the way we are seen by the hearing world.
The result of this is that we find it hard to resort to the usual mainstays of hard-up people… bit of bar work, cabbing, part time job in a shop, things like that. When my hearing children have fallen on difficult times this is how they make ends meet. They will take these little jobs because it’s easy for them and so they have a fallback strategy for extra income.
We don’t have that. We are lucky to get a job in the first place and it is often hard to hang on to one in the face of ferocious hearing competition. Secondary jobs are not really an option for us because we are not able to pick and choose what we do. So we have even less financial flexibility than hearing people and in my opinion to squeeze deaf people’s incomes is just downright inhumen. We have no option but to accept it… or protest.
Monkey Magic
November 26, 2013
Quite right Andy.
This is a bizarre move by ATW, I really think ATW have lost sight of why ATW funding is there. They seem to have come up with a solution that suits them without consulting with the end users and the workforce to fully discover whether this solution can work. There are a whole host of reasons that interpreters are freelance, if salaried positions were the way forward then the vast majority of us would not be freelance.
I think one of the problems may lay in the use of the term ‘support worker’, which would have a different meaning and application for people with other types of disability where it would make sense to employ a worker on a salary. ATW have failed to take into consideration the different nature of deafness and the need to access communicating at a high level in order to be able to compete in the workplace. They have failed to notice that not everyone with a BSL qualification can call themselves an interpreter so the rules of engagement are very different to other types of ‘support worker’. In the case of deafness value for money means using the best access to communication (if that is the choice of the deaf person) not cutting to the point that the communication support is of no use or actually hinders the end users in their work. It is often in situations like this that interpreters are then brought in to clean up the mess – it would have been cheaper to get them in in the first place!
The Government are keen on ‘choice and control’ when it comes to social care and for a time this appeared to be applicable to ATW as well, I have heard that ATW no longer wish to offer this. Choice and control is value for money though – enforcing less hours if a deaf person refuses to employ a salaried interpreter is not value for money in so many ways. This is an ill thought through decision that really only pleases ATW in the end and I really hope the people attending this meeting to get ATW to see this.
This could be a real opportunity for ATW to lead the way and set a good example by showing that they truly understand the issues for deaf people and accept that it often comes at a greater cost compared to the support for other types of ATW claimants. They could be using this to make themselves look good and set a good example, shame they have chosen to take the route they have as they are doing nothing to enhance their reputation.
Tim
November 26, 2013
…and where were these organisations when the government were cutting welfare for Deaf people?
Do they only support Deaf people who are lucky enough to have a job?