A friend an hour ago posted on facebook that her benefits had been stopped all because she couldn’t phone them to arrange an interview (she’s Deaf). She won’t receive her entitlement on Monday.
Pesky People asked if we could do a short blog post to alert others to her situation to see if it could get her help and she agreed.
Since when was it possible to stop anyone’s benefits all for the sake of a phone call?
This is what she said on facebook (edited):
” I got a letter middle of week before last saying I had to attend an interview that Saturday at midday or I’d lose my benefits.
I’m deaf, I struggle to use phone, I prefer sms and e-mail. I’ve got an amplified landline phone, but at mo it’s on limited service cos I’m struggling with bills.
I hate using phone cos its stressful. So having voice phone is not my priority.
But the letter said ‘if you cannot attend you must phone this number’. I’d intended to go in … thinking if I could get childcare…
Anyhow on the saturday I was coming down with cold, there was no text or e-mail number to ring. I didn’t attend but sent e-mail to the disability advisor. I was told my benefits would be stopped unless I went in the following week… I’ve been ill all week but went in on friday.
Nearly got punched in face on my way in cos people were fighting outside (and they say children are welcome and I should take my child).”
I’m struggling to comprehend that we have a benefit system that is completely failing to take into account Deaf people’s access needs and why email and text messaging is not available for deaf people to contact every jobcentre?
She went on to say the receptionist failed to understand that she was deaf and she took out her hearing aid to explain. It has resulted in a complaint being made about her actions.
This all smacks of deaf discrimination and a failure of the Job Centre to take their responsibilities under the Equalities Act 2010.
She was eventually told by an advisor that the decision had been made to stop her benefits, and the advisor would write her comments as an appeal and even if she was Deaf she should have phoned!
Today she received a letter about the receptionist complaints and told that being ill and unable to use a phone becuase she is deaf is considered an unreasonable appeal…
It’s astounding that as the push to put all benefits online by the Digital Taskforce there are still no mechanisms in place for deaf people to easily contact the job centre digitally by text, email or even skype or facebook chat!
She now faces the stress and franticness of sorting it out (with no communication support from the job centre as they have previously refused to book British Sign language interpreters) and being left wondering whether she will receive her benefit at all on Monday. As it is she can’t phone anyone for help.
And this is the big society?
UPDATE from DWP:
I contacted the Department of Work and Pensions to ask them to investigate and respond to the issues raised. They have sent us a copy of their policies and procedures for Deaf access posted below in full. I urge everyone to read it. It is very clear that in this instance the DWP office has systematic failed a Deaf person. In this instance the “offer (of) a welcoming and professional service to deaf people” is seriously discriminating the very people they are supposed to help.
DWP Departmental diversity and equality policy approach
The Department aims to provide services that meet the needs of all disabled people, including those with hearing and visual impairments.
- Operational support – services and information across Jobcentre Plus and PDCS
The Department seeks to provide our full service to deaf people via front line advisers in Jobcentres, Disability Employment Advisers where needed and appropriate to meet customer need, and with some adjustments as necessary via the telephone and internet. To help provide this service the Department ensures the availability of BISL interpretation services where this meets the customers’ needs or preferences. The Department is currently in the process of rolling out a new textphone system to make our telephony service more inclusive for customers with speech and hearing difficulties.
Jobcentre Plus has developed Disability Awareness / Disability Confidence training & guidance to ensure that staff have access to advice which will help them offer a welcoming and professional service to deaf people. Jobcentre Plus has just agreed to make more widely available some learning and development called “Raising the Game on Disability Seminars”. These events will soon be helping more front line staff in Jobcentre Plus deliver a high quality service to disabled customers and specifically included in this learning is advice on how to ensure that this quality service includes deaf people. The Department also uses Employers Forum on Disability guidance and information products to support its staff.
Help for deaf people via Access to Work – The Access to Work programme is a specialist disability programme delivered by Jobcentre Plus that is designed to help overcome the barriers that disabled people face in retaining or entering employment, above and beyond the reasonable adjustments that an employer would be expected to provide.
Access to Work is a flexible programme which can be tailored to the individual customer’s needs. Deaf customers may particularly benefit from the Communicator Support at Interview element, which meets the full cost of hiring a British Sign Language Interpreter to remove any communication barriers faced at an interview and/or the Support Worker element, which can meet the cost of providing an interpreter or a helper in the workplace, and/or the Special Aids and Equipment, which may help towards the costs of purchasing special equipment to enable a deaf person to do a job (the employer would be expected to make a contribution towards this element.
To be eligible to apply for Access to Work, a customer must:
- have a disability or health condition as defined under the Disability Discrimination Act which is affecting their ability to work;
- be 16 years-old or over;
- live and work in Great Britain;
- be in work already, or have a confirmed start-date;
- not be in receipt of Incapacity Benefit (however the customer may get limited help if they will be working under Higher Level or Supported Permitted Work rules).
In the 2009/10 year Access to Work supported 37,210 disabled people.
Help for deaf people via Work Choice
- This has been introduced to ensure that the Department’s disabled customers with more complex support needs, which cannot be met through the Work Programme, have access to the right level of support to help them prepare for, enter and/ or retain employment. A written Ministerial statement on 27th July 2010 announced that Work Choice will replace WORKSTEP, Work Preparation and the Job Introduction Scheme from 25th October 2010. The Government is keen to ensure an appropriate ‘fit’ between employment programmes. The Department will be working to ensure that Work Choice and the Work Programme fit together, both in the eyes of disabled people and of those whose role it is to support and advise them.
- Work Choice will offer high quality specialist customer support. Prime providers will work closely with their sub contractors to offer appropriate support to people with a wide range of disability
- The Department is aware that some people have been on WORKSTEP for a number of years when they really do not need that level of intensive support to work effectively and stay in a job. Therefore under Work Choice, customers will get more consistent, quality support that helps them progress at work and, where appropriate for the individual, move into unsupported employment.
- The Department is taking great care to make sure that people who are currently on WORKSTEP (approx 14,000) make the transition onto Work Choice smoothly and seamlessly. This includes disabled people who work in supported businesses.
What will Work Choice look like?
- Work Choice will replace the current suite of specialist disability employment programmes (i.e. Work Preparation, WORKSTEP and the Job Introduction scheme). It will provide customers with severe disabilities and more complex support needs, with a seamless service covering all stages of the journey into work:
- finding a job and preparing to enter work,
- short to medium-term in-work support or longer-term supported employment, and
- ultimately progression into open unsupported employment, where it is appropriate for the individual.
- Customers can join the programme at different points depending on their needs. Module one provides pre-work support; module two provides supported employment lasting up to two years; module three is for customers requiring long-term support to sustain their job.
- This new programme will provide a better customer experience. By ensuring that the Department’s services make best use of limited resources, it believes that it can help more disabled people with complex needs leave out-of-work benefits and enter and stay in work, giving a better quality of life for themselves and their families.
- Critically, success will depend on working more effectively with employers to help disabled people access work opportunities and gain the right level of support – from both their employer and ourselves – to achieve their full potential in work.
Benefit entitlement:
People who have hearing difficulties are entitled to claim DLA on exactly the same terms as anyone else with a long-term disability.
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) provides an important non-contributory, non-income-related and tax free cash contribution towards the disability-related extra costs faced by severely disabled people. It is paid to people with care and/or mobility needs irrespective of whether they are working and is available to disabled children and working age people alike.
DLA is not paid for particular conditions – the extent of the care and/or mobility needs of the individual arising from their condition are what matters. This is why the claims process concentrates on a person’s personal care and/or mobility needs and not the particular diagnosis in their case. Knowing the particular condition does not help decide what rate of benefit is appropriate or the period over which it should be paid.
Other information and support:
Community 5000 project
- The Department has established the Community 5000 project which aims to give 5000 staff days to work with voluntary organisations. Placements have included DWP staff working with people with sensory impairments and with people of single minority backgrounds. These have included working with the Royal National Institute for the Deaf and other voluntary organisations.
- The Pensions Disability and Carers Service (PDCS) have worked extensively to identify the barriers that exist in some communities to claiming entitlements. PDCS have developed videos, DVDs, posters and other printed material for customers in a number of languages which describe the Service and what it does, benefit entitlement and what that means for people, and the types of changes that people have to report.
Consultation with external groups
- PDCS provide early consultation on change initiatives and service delivery issues that impact on its customers, through the PDCS Advisory Forum. This comprises of 22 organisations which collectively represent a broad range of, pensioners, disabled people and single minority groups, including 2 organisations who specifically represent customers with hearing impairments: the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) and the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS).
Claim forms and leaflets alternative formats
- A wide range of products are available in alternative formats, including large print, Braille, British Sign Language and other languages. Textphone services are available and can be used instead of a voice mail telephone by people who have speech or hearing difficulties. This service provides access to the department to obtain help and advice.
Background
- 5. PDCS, provides a face-to-face service (Local Service) for vulnerable and disabled pension age customers, working age customers and children who cannot access services via telephone or post. It provides home visits along with appointment based Information Points in places that customers are familiar with, such as local libraries and community centres.
Working with RNID
- Local Service has been working with the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) to achieve the ‘Louder than Words’ Chartermark. An accreditation is expected imminently. To achieve the accreditation the actions that have been implemented are:
- all Local Service visiting officers have received training from RNID;
- Local Service letters have been revised to include an offer to customers to have a sign language interpreter present at the visit and the provision of a hearing loop that the visiting officer can take with them;
- hearing loops have been purchased for each office, and
- a number of staff are trained in sign language.
SHOCKING.
This person is not the only one who suffers this bad attitude of Job centres. The deaf are particulary vulnerable and unfairly treated. I am not sure what this website is about but I certainly would report this to your local MP on “Write to your MP”website, and write a letter of complaint to Job centre Manager quoting EA2010 and state that the Job centre staff are under obligation to treat the deaf fairly and with respect. I saw this via a friend on facebook and this needs to be stopped so hopefully this person will take action as above
When will the powers that be, like the charities we all fund raise so hard for start protecting these vulnerable people? This behaviour in our society in this day and age is shameful 😕
There are a number of different sources available for those who need advice and advocacy. I’ve outlined just a few below.
Disability Law Service: http://www.dls.org.uk/
Turn 2 us: http://www.turn2us.org.uk/
Community Legal Advice: http://bit.ly/kdrrmW
Benefits and Work: http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/
Citizens Advice: http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/
Royal Association for Deaf People: http://www.royaldeaf.org.uk/
These are just a few. I pray that this lady manages to get the advice and advocacy she deserves and that this injustice is quickly resolved.
Mr S.Preece
I’ve passed on your advice and it’s invaluable – thank you.
I didn’t know the Job Centres were open on Saturdays. And I am wondering why she couldn’t use Text Direct to give them a call? Or alternatively an able-hearing friend to explain? Just checked, Job Centres are not open on Saturdays.
She is unable to make phone calls from her landline hence being unable to use Text Direct. In regards to the appointment it could be certain appointments are arranged on a Saturday.
She has no friends or family or neighbours who could make a call on her behalf? Her treatment by the JoB Centre is shocking and unacceptable but she hasn’t done herself any favours. She was warned that she had to attend but didn’t go because she ‘was coming down with a cold’. Sorry but I think she should have made more of an effort to attend.
Cague, I know from my own circumstances that I don’t have family (they are in Scotland) near by to assist as is the case for many of us. I’ve once had to phone job centre cos I couldn’t sign on as I was about to go to hospital in an ambulance. My benefit got stopped and went back in on cruches as proof. The shocking thing to me is that this still goes on and it could have been easily sorted if they had given her a sms number to text as is their guidelines (as I found out earlier when contacting DWP).
Yes and if she’d emailed the disability advisor on the day she got the letter pointing out that she can’t make phone calls and asking for an sms number, she might have got one. Barakta mentions ‘the poor little deafie’ who needs help but then this person seems to be saying ‘poor me’. About to go to a hospital in an ambulance is very different from coming down with a cold. Don’t get me wrong, the action (or inaction) of the job centre staff is unacceptable but surely no-one is surprised that they are like this, so why risk it? If she had a job, would she not go to work just because she was coming down with a cold?
It’s a difficult situation. DWP in this instance didn’t use their own procedures in communicating with a Deaf client and giving alternative contact arrangements. If the Disability Advisor was on holiday for example how was that message going to be passed on? By not offering alternative arrangements they are breaking the Equalities Act 2010 to people who need it.
It took me nine months to get Access to Work (ATW) to agree that they would accept and respond to me by email and not letter instead of the demands they gave each time that I ring them. That took real effort.
I take your point but colds vary in scale from person to person being off weather to a full blown cold – I’d not ask anyone to go into work with a cold or anything infectious. As an asthmatic I become really ill as a result. People are pressured these days to go into work when they are really unwell – there is no alternative with the benefits system if you can’t communicate by the very means they tell you to do.
My daughter had an appointment with Job Centre on a Sunday. !
Thank you for so much all your comments with the valuable advice and support has been passed on.
Hopefully something will be sorted quickly. We’ve also contacted Department of Work and Pensions to raise these issues and ask them to take action.
Lee, the job centre have indeed started opening on Saturdays and I’ve got the letter to prove it. Secondly, I take it you are not Deaf yourself? Else you would understand how undermining it is having to constantly ask ‘able friends’ for help with stuff that you could quite easily be able to do yourself if only they provided proper access! (text/email) I’ve got to track down a friend who is not busy with their own life (and family) on a Saturday and get them to come to my house and make the phone call. They would not accept a friend phoning on my behalf unless I was there to authorise (it’s same with sign language interpreters), like banks you have to give personal details and get put in call waiting queue’s… I guess you’ve never had to ask friends to make calls for him and just assume it’s all so easy! Text Direct? Does that take account of “All our operators are busy, Your call is in a queue and will be answered shortly”?
I’m profoundly deaf, and I have to say knowing the importance of attending this meeting and if I was unable to call them myself via Typetalk, I would have got a friend or family member to phone them on my behalf. If this was not possible then I would have attended the Job Centre to explain prior to the meeting. As for the ‘Your call is in a queue’, that is universal and is part of modern life. I was merely playing devil’s advocate with my posting.
Please save your patronisation for someone else.
It’s like banging our heads against a brick wall with this issue. There are lots of commnents on the Pardon I’m Deaf and BSL Act Facebook pages about these issues too.
Yes the reality is that we have to go the extra mile to get the access we need and it is not only stressful but I feel humiliating that DWP and Job Centre plus are obliged to make it easy for us to contact them by email / text / phone what ever we prefer but they never do.
The bottom line is DWP and job centre don’t and I have press quotes from DWP to say they are doing it but they are not monitoring it.
That is the situation we need to address.
Unfortunately not everyone is able to go into the job centre to make the arrangments needed due to their personal circumstances either and the whole thing becomes a sorry mess.
I’m hoping that things will change and it takes us all to raise the issues to see that change happen.
Social Welfare Advocacy (above) also suggested via Facebook appealing to them http://www.dwp.gov.uk/contact-us/complaints-and-appeals/
You would think the DWP might have a bllody clue as they host this on their web site:
http://odi.dwp.gov.uk/disabled-people-and-legislation/un-convention-on-the-rights-of-disabled-people.php
Another list of useful links to organisations:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/362465830435590/doc/367825689899604/
Is it sad that I am not surprised at this? Nothing ever changes in DWPland!
Back in in 2004 I had to fight not to be made to use the inferior textphone service that was offered by the jobcentre. I eventually learned to refuse all incoming calls as they wouldn’t use 18002 (a whole other rant!) and the calls wouldn’t come through and then I’d call back and find “didn’t answer call” as a reason for the call not coming through. I had to be REALLY assertive and stress that I would sue them if they didn’t make the reasonable adjustments that I required.
Attending the jobcentre was mostly an exercise in humiliation and discrimination as staff would not speak clearly, face me or come and get my attention visually. I was relying on the nice security guard (himself an in the ear hearing aid user) to let me know when my name was called. I ended up adapting my “signing on book” with http://www.barakta.org.uk/deafjobcentre_wallet.jpg and http://www.barakta.org.uk/deafjobcentre_back_wallet.jpg . That helped a bit but didn’t do away with all the deaf-fail. I learned to be assertively stroppy and get “a manager” which got me a better class of human being who usually had clue and some deaf awareness.
It’s very easy for folk to say the person affected by this fail should just buy a textphone… Those things are expensive, about £360 (inc printer rolls) for the one which I can type on cos I also have a dexterity impairment. Even the cheapest ones are about £200 minimum and have terrible keyboards. On top of that you need a landline which is £10-£15 a month line rental. That’s a lot of money for a poor person especially if they move house and have to pay £££ for installation and and and… A PAYG mobile is much cheaper for many things.
Lots of people who have to rely on benefits don’t use landlines anymore and rely on PAYG mobile phones. Yet a deaf person does not really have a choice not to have a landline We get no discounts on our phone line rental and no official way of funding a minicom if we haven’t jumped the DLA hoops or indeed don’t find our DLA needed more elsewhere.
My home textphone is dying of old age despite being repaired and I will probably not replace it because it’s outmoded technology and I only use it for organisations who haven’t got with the 90s and started using online methods of communication. I suspect I’ll have to use the Equality Act to force them to change their failpolicies and access and I’ll get screwed over in the process.
And not everyone has someone who can “help” them, and that’s a pervasive expectation that we’ll all have someone who will help the poor little deafie who can’t do it for themselves! I don’t have anyone who is able or willing to help me with phones, I have to deal with being hung up on and screwed around and I avoid the wretched things wherever possible.
Textphone and videophone services should absolutely be available to deaf people using government services but email and SMS should also be options as they are potentially cheaper and easier to access and in my experience more preferred by deaf people. Security is often cited as a reason SMS and email can’t be used, but they have no proof that it is me on a textphone either as the voice they hear is that of a relay operator.
I wish the person referred to in this article all the best. I hope someone smacks the DWP around the head and gets things sorted and that there is real change systemically and not just because “someone complained and got press attention”.
Barakta, Thanks for your comments – I’m sorry to hear your experience of DWP and know that is the tip of the iceberg. I’ll also be passing it onto DWP to tell them even though it is a few years ago there is clearly deep rooted attitudes to deal with.
Your jpg images are brilliant way of getting people to read and take notice and even I could use them to wave in hospital and GP settings to get them to pay attention.
Where did you get them?
I blame the RNID for a lack of aggression on our behalf . They have also allowed the world in general to get the idea that every deaf person can or wants to sign. Those of us who grew up hearing and in a hearing world and who have been deafened are also seriously discriminated against. Signing is a foreign language to me- to access the help offered above I would have to learn a new language. I lip read but am probably more deaf than many people who sign.Sophisticated communications methods are available but never used to help the deaf-not even down to visual call boards in waiting rooms in ENT .Everywhere from building societies to mobile phone companies even to hospital departments seem to assume that we can use a phone if it is turned up loud enough or use a type talk phone. A growing number of services are needing voice activation-again building society internet accounts are an example and frustratingly text packages on mobile phones. Now I dont get any benefits and I would have to pay for a type talk phone over and above everything else And I am not willing to discuss personal or financial matters via a third party-how do I know they can be trusted with credit card details for instance. This year will see the Para Olympics, which will make people think about the disabled-but they will only think about the disabilities they can see. The deaf will still be treated as being stupid and awkward and if government departments do it there is no hope for any of us. Our lives will remain as stressful as ever.
I’ve had a few problems recently with the job Centre and DWP. If you phone them using Text Direct, they refuse to accept your call and point you in the direction of their textphone number. Now, I wouldn’t mind phoning that, except it’s permanently engaged, which probably means its off the hook all the time and unmanned. So, being a Deaf person who cannot hear on the phone, how do I contact them in order to miss a signing due to illness or therapy appointments? I’ve struggled in with terrible flu recently, and got told off for coming in and I should have phoned! Can’t win…
I just read what the lady wrote and Im having same problem now. can not contact job centre plus
can not hear on phone so tried texting the text phone no joy. Then tried DWP same problem can not get in touch no email . So clicks on complaints guess what ring this niumber..
I thought theses places catered for the deaf.
Hi Karen I’m sorry to hear that you are having lots of difficulties with Job Centre Plus – there have been lots of issues raised about them. Do you want us to help see if can get it sorted? If so I’ll email you direct. Alison