Archive for Blogs

Benefitscamp why it is important

Today #benefitscamp is taking place London hosted by the fab FutureGOV team. It is important it provides a way fordisabled and deaf people, web developers, the providers (DWP) with a way of working together to find digital solutions that improve the system.founders from Nominet and NESTA will be there too to back up the best ideas. Here’s my pennies worth: An online portal / in house portal that you can ask questions about benefits in an easy... 
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Is the job centre failing it’s Deaf clients?

If you read the post  about Janet (@deafplanet) a Deaf  woman who’s benefit was cut for not attending an interview due to inability to contact them by phone (she’s Deaf and has no outgoing phine line to phone by minicom to Text Direct service.)  For many d/Deaf people Text Direct is a lifeline offering text to speech operator who will relay the call. DWP routinely fail to offer  email or sms numbers as an alternative contact in letters... 
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Too high a price for a pint

David Colley wrote the following ‘jokey style’ email to a pub chain yesterday: After a rather depressing visit to a Wetherspoons pub, I tried to cheer myself up. We all need to remember the bright side of discrimination, after all. Don’t we? So here’s what I wrote to them…. “Hello, Today I visited The Five Swans in Newcastle upon Tyne (NE1 7PG) a Wetherspoons pub. I am a wheelchair user and had significant problems. The... 
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Being Deaf is no excuse – if you can’t phone you will lose your benefits

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... 
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East Coast Trains – a result

Pesky People is pleased to say that East Coast Trains have emailed us today to confirm they are updating their assisted travel booking system after our intervention on Tuesday. They are going to address complaints from David Colley who has found himself booked on diesel trains (which have doors too narrow for him to board) with his electric wheelchair. Unbelievably  it’s all down to 10mm of door space between the old train carriages and... 
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