Jobcentre discrimination

[PhilB]

You can find government guidance on what constitutes a disability under the Equality Act 2010 here:

https://www.gov.uk/definition-of-disabi ... y-act-2010

There is a link in that page to a pdf that gives details.

In short you need to have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial adverse effect on your ability to undertake day to day tasks.

Dyspraxia is listed as an impairment in the guidance, so if you were to print the guidance off and show it to someone they couldn't really dispute that part. The bit that is more challenging is demonstrating that the adverse effect is substantial. E.g. it takes me a lot longer to write than someone without dyspraxia/dyslexia etc. But how much slower does it need to be to become 'substantial'. If I was 1% or 2% slower then even I wouldn't call it significant. If I'm writing at quarter the speed you'd hope it was a no brainer and definitely a substantial impact. However, it seems fairly loosely defined to me and leaves a lot to the interpretation of whichever adviser you are speaking to.

[jimmy87notts]

new developments. Since this i did ring up and complain & it was logged into the system. I was due to be paid today...i wasnt. I rang up at 8am and they told me i didnt turn up for my appointment on tuesday ( I DID I SIGNED THE PIECE OF PAPER!) They said i would recieve a phone call by 4:30pm, I got bored fo waiting by 2:30 rang them again, They hadnt done anything since the first phonecall apparently my record hadnt been update, Then then said i would be marked " Emergency Priority" and id be paid within the hour...i wasnt so i rang up at 5;pm and it turns out the emails had been ignored and nothing update and i now have to wait till next week till i can be paid, BUT I have to go down and sort it myself. This STINKS of punishment and a personal attack on me for wanting to lodge a complaint

[Moot]

Well that's bloody rubbish. :/ I really hope you can sort it and sorry I can't be of any help.

---

Argh, on the job centre front I am being made to sign on again. This time I will tr and mention about dyspraxia concerns for all the good it will (won't) likely do...

Regarding that link, it says on it:

'What ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ mean -
‘substantial’ is more than minor or trivial - eg it takes much longer than it usually would to complete a daily task like getting dressed'

Does that mean that if you do take longer to do things that is trivial and doesn't count as disability enough for the rulings? To me that would be problematic in certain jobs. How about having poor short term memory? Is that trivial? So I am not the most obviously dyspraxiest dyspraxic ever, but there are still these certain things that have affected me a lot, and anyway my lack of confidence is the biggest hurdle right now. I'm still not 100% convinced I can be included in any such act.

But again, just best mention it when I have to go (please don't let me ), but I'll probably end up not explaining properly or they just brush it off and so I don't really get anywhere.

[Avarice]

new developments. Since this i did ring up and complain & it was logged into the system. I was due to be paid today...i wasnt. I rang up at 8am and they told me i didnt turn up for my appointment on tuesday ( I DID I SIGNED THE PIECE OF PAPER!) They said i would recieve a phone call by 4:30pm, I got bored fo waiting by 2:30 rang them again, They hadnt done anything since the first phonecall apparently my record hadnt been update, Then then said i would be marked " Emergency Priority" and id be paid within the hour...i wasnt so i rang up at 5;pm and it turns out the emails had been ignored and nothing update and i now have to wait till next week till i can be paid, BUT I have to go down and sort it myself. This STINKS of punishment and a personal attack on me for wanting to lodge a complaint

Two things. Other than disability legislation get your MP on them! That's what they are for. Any one of them who says its not a disability and should just "get over it" is an ignoramus fool.They and their superiors should be disciplined and required to attend remedial education about that.

(What they really deserve is to be whacked about the head for having such an empty vessel in it combined with a shitty attitude.)

[LuluBoo]

that's wrong how they've treated you
my dad is kind of the same though so I've grown used to it
even my friends mum didn't believe me when i said i was disabled (the heck)
I'm sick of dyspraxia not being recognised

[Captain_Ludd]

even my friends mum didn't believe me when i said i was disabled (the heck)
I'm sick of dyspraxia not being recognized

I know what you mean, unfortunately that's just the way of the world at the moment hence why its known as a hidden disability.
But it really annoys me how some people (especially these little bureaucrats) look at you and go "well I can see anything wrong with you", to which my reply is normally "are you a doctor? do you have a degree in neurology? " - no well then read the medical reports.
I really hate the "if I cant see it and I don't understand it its not there" mentality, it can make the lives of people like yourself and Jimmy a nightmare and if it was left up to these people we'd probably still all be believing the earth was flat !

[LuluBoo]

even my friends mum didn't believe me when i said i was disabled (the heck)
I'm sick of dyspraxia not being recognized

I know what you mean, unfortunately that's just the way of the world at the moment hence why its known as a hidden disability.
But it really annoys me how some people (especially these little bureaucrats) look at you and go "well I can see anything wrong with you", to which my reply is normally "are you a doctor? do you have a degree in neurology? " - no well then read the medical reports.
I really hate the "if I cant see it and I don't understand it its not there" mentality, it can make the lives of people like yourself and Jimmy a nightmare and if it was left up to these people we'd probably still all be believing the earth was flat !

exactly my boyfriend's mum picked up that i was disabled straight away (all her 3 children, including my boyfriend are disabled) i was particularly shocked with my friend's mum because my friend is disabled (cerebal palsy)
It is really frustrating that people are just like 'you're obviously fine' when i'm like 'how do you know'

[Captain_Ludd]

i was particularly shocked with my friend's mum because my friend is disabled (cerebal palsy)

Wow, now that's hypocritical! You'd think she'd understand more than most ,almost makes me ashamed to have cerebal palsy ,we're not all that closed minded honest .

[LuluBoo]

i was particularly shocked with my friend's mum because my friend is disabled (cerebal palsy)

Wow, now that's hypocritical! You'd think she'd understand more than most ,almost makes me ashamed to have cerebal palsy ,we're not all that closed minded honest .

my friend knows I have it so we used to support eachother at college
but the way her mum sort of dismissed it was quite offensive
it was more or less a kick in the face i.e. 'i can't see it so you must not have it' whereas i'm not going to have a neon sign over my head saying 'i have dyspraxia'

[Shadwell]

it is true though, people that can't walk properly have a walking stick, a person who can't walk at all use a wheel chair. a person with some other disability you can tell instantly. but we are left without the tell tale signs of our condition, but the Job centre don't turn around, and say to someone with their legs amputated to walk over there and back again without using any aids to assist you.

but yet they expect us to do exactly the opposite. try and work that one out, as it has baffled me for years now!!

[LuluBoo]

I find it horrific that there isn't a huge amount of awareness at the 'fantastic' DWP
My other half has autism and he can't work his ESA was stopped because ATOS are the 'great' ( ) people they are however as soon as he walked into his drs for a 'sick note' he was just like 'he definitely can't work' luckily he won an appeal.

[Jim]

That ATOS thing is a complete and utter sham. People with very real difficulties get completely shafted with this attitude along the lines of "even if In your whole body just one finger works... You could be a data logger"

hence people with genuine disabilities loose out whilst fraudsters without any physical disability or others wise get away with conning the system out if thousands.

It's disgusting.

[LuluBoo]

That ATOS thing is a complete and utter sham. People with very real difficulties get completely shafted with this attitude along the lines of "even if In your whole body just one finger works... You could be a data logger"

hence people with genuine disabilities loose out whilst fraudsters without any physical disability or others wise get away with conning the system out if thousands.

It's disgusting.

It is!
they however grant it if you are an immigrant or a drug addict which is awful.
I've heard of someone who was paralyzed since they were a kid and they were told that they'd be ok in 6 months
ATOS should just be scrapped

[Captain_Ludd]

I was watching that "Saints and Scroungers" the other week and they had a case of a guy who had been diagnosed with a terminal case of inoperable liver cancer, after a while he was forced to give up his job as a builder.
He went to the job centre had an assessment and the job centre basically refused to give him any support because he passed all their tests and was still able to work !!
They only coincidently decided to change their decision after the program had got involved, I think that tells you all you need to know really.
You could be dragged into the place as a corps and they'd deny support on the basis you could still do telly sales via sayonce.

[AlleyCat]

There are several petitions on the go at the moment re. the UK government's treatment of the sick and disabled. This one is to be presented to Amnesty UK at their annual conference. It would be good if people on here would sign it to help it get up to the minimum 3000 signatures they're aiming for:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Amnest ... d/?tXEQVbb

There is also a government epetition created by the comedienne Francesca Martinez, which you might like to sign if you haven't already done so:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154

As someone with dyspraxia who has spent most of my life being blamed for things I can't help, I really feel for all the sick and disabled people who have been treated so appallingly by the Jobcentre and Atos.