Thursday, July 06, 2006

Access to Work cuts

Those who have read this blog recently will know that I have been lucky enough to have gotten funding for the equipment I needed to help me with my work.

Though it took about a year to get from start to end, for many reasons like expecting my workplace which I had just when I made the application, to make a contribution! And my response was one of shock and then to laugh at them for wanting to make my position more precarious than it could have been, especially as that is what Access to Work is meant to be for, to provide a level a playing field for those who are disabled.

Well, I saw the following through a link I got in email, and it doesn’t exactly make good reading

Work and Pensions, Access to Work

I don’t see this as anything other than bad, I have to say, an opportunity for this government to make cuts in funding. What it is saying is that the government is going to make it harder for disabled people to be employed by governmental departments, and I don’t believe any of the rubbish that they say they are equal opportunities employer – fat chance. They will do their level best to ensure that they don’t have to pay out more than needed for a person, and this just ensures it will be even more difficult for disabled to work in governmental departments. Not that I think many people would want to work for an employer who doesn’t pay much above minimum wage which is what so many people in the JobCentres get.

I am surprised the DRC doesn’t see this as a problem.

2 comments:

mervynjames224 said...

I'm afraid the DRC is a bit of an 'in joke' with the government. Staffed as it is with a majority of non-disabled people, instructed to agree with government policy. Successive people included into the DRC who are disabled left in disgust, which in retrospect was a huge mistake on our part, leaving the DRC with no real disabled voice. It would be a kindness to kill off the DRC now and the DDA, since neither have been very effective in gaining us real rights or access. It is why most of the push comes via the human rights law now, not the disabled one, we've no faith in them.

Fredsbuddy said...

I have been in receipt of ATW for over nine years and now find that my grants have been cut to the bone. It is going to be very difficult to continue to do my job. Mine is not an isolated case, a friend involved in a local Deaf School has had their funding slashed to unworkable too.

The level playing field of ATW is on its way out and the new policies are directly discriminatory against disabled people. I am seeking legal advice.

Liverpool