• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Employment / Access to Work crisis: Advice worker could lose her job over ‘ridiculous’ ruling

Access to Work crisis: Advice worker could lose her job over ‘ridiculous’ ruling

By John Pring on 21st November 2014 Category: Employment, Human Rights, News Archive

Listen

newslatestA Deaf advice worker could lose her job because of a “ridiculous” ruling by Access to Work advisers, who rejected her application because they claimed the interpreters who helped her communicate with clients were “doing the work” for her.

Lottie Powell started working in September as a direct payments adviser with The Fed Centre for Independent Living, in Brighton.

She needs full-time support from British Sign Language interpreters to allow her to communicate with disabled clients, and interact with colleagues in the office.

Although she was given funding for the first month of her new job by Access to Work (AtW), that has now run out.

Powell, who received full-time AtW support in her previous job in the NHS, was told by letter on 13 November that her application for AtW funding in her new job had been turned down because “support is provided to help the customer to do their job, the [support worker] should not be doing the work of, or replacing the disabled person”.

Powell said she was “shocked” by the letter, and by such an “arbitrary” decision.

She said: “They are basically saying the interpreter is replacing my role, but they are not.

“I use interpreters for communication, so I can access background conversations in the office, so colleagues can understand what I am saying.

“How are interpreters doing my role if they are facilitating my communication?

“My interpreters will proof-read my emails but they don’t change the content, they just check that they are readable so I am on a par with my peers.”

She added: “I work for a disabled people’s organisation, and that is the irony.

“It is incredibly stressful. I am in such an uncertain position as regards to my future. I could lose my job because of this. I am not able to do my job without my interpreters.”

Geraldine Desmoulins, The Fed’s chief officer, said: “Lottie is very good at her job and we don’t want to lose her. She is a fantastic team member and we are very happy to have her.

“All she has had is a letter from Access to Work saying they are not going to pay for her support because it is the interpreters who are doing the work.

“They haven’t even been here to see her and talk to her. It is ridiculous. I am just gobsmacked. If she doesn’t have any interpreting support, she cannot do her job.”

But she said The Fed would not be able to afford to pay for the communication support that Powell needs if AtW withdrew its funding.

So far, the Department for Work and Pensions has failed to comment on her case.

Powell’s is just the latest in a series of concerns about AtW reported by Disability News Service.

Last month, Mark Harper, the Conservative minister for disabled people, was told by MPs on the Commons work and pensions committee that the government’s AtW reforms had led to a huge backlog of claims, “appalling” administration, and rude and poorly-trained advisers.

DNS has run a string of reports over the last six months from disabled people concerned about administrative problems, delays and cuts to their AtW funding.

They include Jenny Sealey, chief executive and artistic director of Graeae, who was co-director of the London 2012 Paralympics opening ceremony, and who has had her AtW support for interpreters cut by more than half, putting her career at risk.

20 November 2014

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Tags: Access to Work British Sign Language Interpreters Mark Harper

Related

Access to Work in crisis as figures show ‘massive’ waiting-list
12th May 2022
Controversial BSL bill set to become law
28th April 2022
Fresh concerns over BSL bill despite huge London rally
24th March 2022

Primary Sidebar

Image shows a man wearing glasses sitting by an open laptop The text reads: Free Career Support for Disabled People Our services include: 1-2-1 Coaching Online Career Resources Find Support near you Search for Inclusive Jobs Career Events and Workshops Visit the Evenbreak Career Hive today to find out how we can help you

Access

Latest Stories

Grenfell: Call for action over government’s ‘deplorable’ decision on evacuation plans

‘Severely neglected’ man found dead, three months after DWP assessment

Government brands DNS ‘vexatious’ for trying to obtain info on 90 DWP deaths

Government’s ‘milestone’ disability jobs stats ‘are meaningless when it comes to equality’

Concern over offensive LGBT+ comments at access awards event

Universal credit boss defends years of misleading information

Discrimination could be a cause of increased risk of Covid death, says ONS

Access to Work in crisis as figures show ‘massive’ waiting-list

Queen’s speech: Activists’ message to Patel over new protest bill: ‘We fight on’

Queen’s speech: Six bills that may change disabled people’s lives, for better and for worse

Advice and Information

The Department for Work and Pensions: Deaths, cover-up, and a toxic 30-year legacy

Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web