Access to Work

[Rosie]

Hi curleysue

It is worthj calling Access to Work to ask them the questions you have asked on here. They are usully really helpful, and may well suggest things that haven't even occurred to you. The people interviewing you may not have the information you need, they may not have had an employee use AtW before, so may know little about it. AtW fund more for people starting a new job, and their advice and assessments don't cost you or your employer anything.

Rosie

[tinselworm]

Hello all,

After two months in my new job I've finally got AtW coming to assess me tomorrow. Hurrah!

Is there anything in particular I should be asking them to do? I know it's my one shot at getting some help and I really don't want to screw it up.

Any advice from fellow bendies who've been there would be most helpful.

[Littlelady]

Hey. I will soon be qualifying as a nurse and I start a new job the beginning of October.

I'm wondering what kind of things access to work could offer me. I've only recently been diagnosed with HMS so I'm not entirely sure what things I could use to help me.

I don't have an official start date so I was told to ring access to work back when I get a date.

I just wanted an idea of things they might offer for this type of job.

Thanks everyone x

[Spireite]

Shock horror, but after 2.5 years of unemployment and 10,000 job rejections, I have landed a (junior, low-paid) full-time job. Last time I was working I hadn't heard of Access to Work, but now I have, I have contacted them, got the form, added to it, added the job description and sent it back.

Now an advisor has emailed me and she has a few more questions in order to be able to proceed and refer me to an assessor.

One question is 'What is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome? I am not medically trained therefore I require any information with regards to this condition that you can provide.'
How have the rest of you answered that? Should I refer her to the DWP document? She is from the DWP though!

How it effects me? Well, yes that is for me to answer but it is so hard to explain succinctly to someone with no experience of it.

Then she wants an assessment before I start work. Surely they should only assess once I have started working? I don't want to do anything to scare off the employer before I start there after being unemployed for so long.

Thanks for any help everyone.

[Rosie]

Hiya

You could print off some of the info on the website to send her, and direct her towards the DWP handbook, even printing it out and sending it to her. Don't assume that she will have seen it before. You could also send her a list of how you are effected, maybe listing what joints are painful, which sublux and however else you struggle. She won't need you to come up with solutions like the equipment that will help you, but she needs to understand what you find difficult before she can suggest things that might help. It is good that she is asking questions as it shows she is willing to learn.

Rosie

[barkingmad]

Congratulations on getting a job!

I would do as Rosie says but whilst I think about it NHS Choices are now going to be the one and only source that the DWP uses.

[Spireite]

How do you raise the issue of Access to Work being involved with a new employer who has no idea that you are not 100% fit and able? I don't get the impression that he would take it as well as some others, although of course I could be wrong. First impressions count!

[Rosie]

Hiya

I would present it to them in a positive way. You can steer them to the information here as it is quite well worded. Under the heading 'Who can get Access to Work' it talks about how you, and/or your job. may be affected by your disbility, and employers are usually happy to find something else to find any changed needed. Is the company 2 ticked registered? or does it have any HR policies about disability in the workplace? If there are any other people with disabilities there who you could ask?
It is difficut, but people with disabilities are protected by law.

Rosie

[gila]

congrats for new job spireite!!!
think the dwp handbook as such got abolished, or??? (and why?????)
and in that handbook there was nothing/ not much under ehlers danlos, info was under hypermobility syndrome ( really do wish the med bod establishment could decide on one name once and for all), on nhs choices there is info on both.

hmmm, I so understand that you didnt mention having a disability, but hope it wont create probs now, keeping fingers crossed for ya!!!!!!!!
xxg

[Spireite]

No there's no HR department and no HR policies. No, they are not 2 ticks registered. Of course I want to be positive about it hence why I'm thinking about it in advance. I can say it won't cost them anything, but it is more the shock/attitude of some people/bosses that I have experienced in the past who can't get past seeing a poor disabled person, either 'ah bless - not up to much' or 'agh panic - we don't want them' attitude. First impressions count so much and there is a probation period. Once some people have a certain impression in their heads, it can be hard to shift. I speak from experience.

Far better like my current job (yes I'm both unemployed and employed - small part-time job for a charity and and in addition a linked voluntary job exercising) which already had a good, suitable office set up so I don't need anything more/Access to Work. They can get to know me for doing a great job (or two!) before I let them know, if and when it suits me, long after they have formed their opinion about me, about any misbehaving body parts that I might have.

Unfortunately the new place has awful, huge, heavy, soft, backward-sloping unsuitable antiquated chair and an unergonomic set up which is no good for me so needs to be changed (for what you normally get in an office).

Disability isn't part of the interview process unless there needs to be adaptations for the interview, which I don't need. Employers are not allowed to ask about disability or sick leave as part of the Equalities Act. The interview should focus on ability to do the job.

[gila]

I m stu... , err lets call it v misinformed

[Rosie]

Hi all

gila - which bit are you 'misinformed' about?

Rosie

[Spireite]

The Access to Work lady came out today and I was most impressed. She knew about our condition and its biggest problems and had helped many others with EDS she said. It is such a pleasant surprise to meet someone who just knows and accepts it all. She had lots of ideas about how to make sitting in front of a computer all day much more tolerable which makes my working future a whole load brighter. This included a made to measure office chair especially as I am so 'petite'. (She took photos of me at the current archaic desk and enormous soft, backward-sloping, heavy chair and had a bit of a snigger!)

However, IMMEDIATELY AFTER the Access to Work lady left, my contract was terminated. The neanderthal ex-boss went ballistic. Clear disability discrimination. I had told him about Access to Work a week ago, but I don't think the penny had dropped or he wanted to admit he didn't know what it was, or in his rage I've suddenly changed in his head from being fit and well to one of those problematic disabled person he doesn't employ. I don't think he liked being told, albeit very very nicely, that bits of the office doesn't meet Health and Safety Legislation and have to be changed anyway. He doesn't care in the slightest if it doesn't cost him a penny - nothing is changing.

[Rosie]

Hiya

Call the ACAS helpline and ask them for their advice. You might also try contacting the Access to Work lady if you have her contact details, and ask her what you can do. The Access to Work programme is a Jobcentre Plus grant scheme and cannot just be ignored. What is the reason stated for terminating your contract? Employers like this seem to think that employment law does not apply to them, and it is only by querying their behaviour that anything will change.

Rosie

[Spireite]

Thanks, Acas is an idea.

I'm not totally sure exactly why my contract was terminated as the ex-boss was in a right state and not capable of a clear, sensible conversation beyond he's not changing anything. The Access to Work visit left him incandescent. However, it is certainly not work-related as work was never mentioned in the ranting, and I hadn't started on my own (beyond making him a cup of tea) with last week being handover with the happily departing woman (or 'lass' as he irritatingly calls all women).

But in the probation period, do they need to give a reason?

He did keep ranting about not being a large corporation with lots of forms and somehow doesn't seem to think any legislation applies to him or his small business - employment or health and safety. He seems to think as it is his business he can do exactly as he likes. You can't say I can't work in an office that is properly ergonomically set up as that is what I was doing in a small charity all year up to the week before - another small business! I just don't understand why he doesn't want something for nothing and to make his employees happier and more comfortable but he really doesn't. I had already deduced from the archaic, inefficient procedures which had served him well for 30 years he says, lowest holidays ever, stingy pay, no mention of sick leave so I wondered if that was allowed at all, that this was not a good employer and just a stepping stone to a better employer.

I don't have the good Access To Work assessor lady's contact details. I did immediately email my contact at Access to Work with the news!

I just hope I get paid my notice but I'm not sure I will! Then I will definitely have to fight. I feel he is an old dinosaur stuck in the dark ages and beyond help!