This is a guest post by Joanna
The 'solution' to the benefits bill and cuts to mental health services is framed as employment but Access to Work doesn’t really doesn't grasp the complexity of people's lives and that people without qualifications are most likely to be pushed into temporary contract work of a manual kind and remain there. Or, they will be consigned to ‘Workfare’, this could pan out to be little better than ‘industrial therapy’ or the modern equivalent to slave labour. Temporary contracts are on the rise and are ideal for employers because they do not have to offer holiday pay and sick leave is less of a risk for them if the contract only lasts for a few weeks so the person can be easily replaced. So what happens if a person who is found ‘fit for work’ goes sick during a placement or temporary work not of their choosing? Understandably, many people don’t want endless streams of temporary work for a few weeks in between ESA, because that’s worse than not working, it means maximum stress of waiting for the first pay cheque/benefit renewal for weeks so debt accrues which is harder at the low end of the pay scale. Those who promote temporary work have often never experienced doing it themselves and are in permanent well paid positions [of their choosing] with generous holiday allowance and sick pay. It’s easy for people to extol the virtues of work and conditions they have never undertaken themselves, and with less prospect of doing anything else.
Unless 'slivers of time' means that a salary is topped up to a minimum wage, it could mean people end up with £20 more than ESA, again this could mean long term poverty for those who could never realistically work beyond a ‘sliver of time’.
We keep hearing about 'working from home' but you can't do that with shelf stacking, cleaning, or catering. Working from home means having a certain set of skills and the ability to undertake largely computerised work. It still doesn’t get around the problem that the current system is destined to plunge many people into a lifetime of poverty. People working full-time at minimum wage still require tax credits and housing benefit [which makes a mockery out of the notion of a ‘living wage’] but people working under 10 hours are not going to be topped up to the level of a full-time minimum wage.
‘Reasonable adjustments’ maybe apply to higher level work with employers such as the NHS but they simply don’t apply to retail where sick leave even for 10 days in a year for physical conditions with a doctor’s certificate can mean being disciplined. Many mental health service users [and discharged service users] would find it very hard to limit their sick leave to 10 days a year with fluctuating conditions which even the best support in the world couldn’t prevent [of which much has now been lost]. Access to Work even for those who might get it will be time limited and sometimes there are no ‘reasonable adjustments’, sometimes a person simply needs time and space out of work. Access to Work can’t console a person doing something they can’t really do or want to do for little knowing that this is their lot, and it is different for people who have been through the mental health system than those who have not. People with psychiatric history live with the most discriminated condition, on treatments which raise risk of physical illness, reduce life expectancy, and mean less opportunities.
Not everyone can or wants to get a university education as their way out, not everyone can work even for a few hours and there is no discussion allowed on the topic of chosen voluntary work as an additional outcome in between working/not working for people with enduring mental health problems. As for voluntary work being seen as the ‘stepping stone’ to paid work, sadly this isn’t reflected in all people’s experience of seeking work. Even prestigious voluntary work with transferable skills such as CAB means not getting beyond an interview even with employment advisor support of the kind which Access to Work won’t offer. There is no way of bridging no work history or gaps of many years. There is no way of concealing 5, 10, 20 years medical history, because when a person hasn’t got paid work on their CV for that length of time employers work it out. They are not stupid, they know even without pre-employment health questionnaires that gaps of that length mean only one thing – health problems, and employers want employees who can hit the ground running and consistently deliver.
Services no longer allow for enduring difficulties with discrete blocks of time in which users have to pass through Access and Short Term Intervention services through to discharge back to GP. Therefore an underclass will emerge of people who have never been able to hold down a job, or have massive gaps on their CV.
CV writing classes and a suit won’t solve their circumstances, neither will ‘reasonable adjustments’, working from home, being self-employed or working ‘slivers of time’. These nice sound bites do not apply in reality and people know what they are destined for. Those with the ear of government and the media are putting their fingers in their ears and refusing to hear it, and sickeningly, ‘back-to-work’ schemes look set to make a lot of money out of other people’s misery and poverty. People with mental health difficulties are at the very bottom of the disability rubbish dump and no one with political clout is speaking out.
(distressingly) well put!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post. Just 2 things, as far as I'm aware "access to work" is a scheme which is being withdrawn due to funding (i.e. government don't want to invest), and no-one quite seems to know what if anything will replace it - at least that's what I've been led to believe by my Pathways to Work advisor, who is finding less and less of his work to be in this role and more and more of it being the "stick" rather than the "carrot"
ReplyDeleteAlso it's not just just low-wage or smaller companies that discipline people for being sick - the NHS is one of the worst offenders for this, with Trusts bringing out sanctions against staff who take off either longer periods of time, or multiple periods of sickness, including formal warnings which make career progression near impossible.
I also believe that the government want to increase the minimum number of hours worked in order to gain working tax credits, from 16 to 20, but I might have made that up. Either way it penalises people like me, who are hoping to start on low hours and realistically doubt I'll ever be well enough for full-time work.
Add to this the removal of "linking" which means taking a job becomes incredibly risky, because if illness forces you to withdraw, there's no guarentee you'll be entitled to benefits again as you have to start the whole process again. It makes taking temporary contracts even riskier - what happens at the end of them when you have to start the whole application process for benefits again.
But then Job seeker's isn't any safer, I know plenty of people who've lost literally hundreds of pounds through taking temporary (3-6 month) contracts. Hardly an incentive.
But then you said it perfectly yourself. What the government really want is slave labour. They don't view the population as people or individuals, merely as financial commodities, there to generate money for themselves.
That much is obvious from successive government's "sickness-absence" standpoints which clearly view it as a social problem rather than a direct result of having a workforce of human beings who will get sick from time to time.
It's certainly a situation that terrifies the life out of me.
Take care,
Differently
Differently Sane-
ReplyDeleteAccording to Liz Sayce and charities Access to Work is what we’ve all been waiting for and the governments best kept secret:
http://www.mind.org.uk/news/5174_review_of_work_support_for_disabled_people_could_be_moment_penny_drops_on_welfare
In reality whatever of this exists/will exist would only be available to a few and for a few months with nothing remotely like the specialised support again only available to a few now and often tied to being a user of a community mental health service. Therefore discharge means loss of that support.
I completely agree with you that ‘back-to-work’ schemes and advisors will become increasingly like another arm of Jobcentre sanctions and those charities bidding for contracts refuse to answer the question about how they will reconcile their role as a charity with possibly being a part of the process of loss of benefits.
I know the NHS has become much more vigilant about sick leave, but, it still remains one of the very few employers [ditto the Police] where employees do get sick pay and if need be for substantial periods. 10 days in a year [with a doctors cert] is less likely to result in being disciplined, unlike in retail.
It’s just appalling that government wants to increase the minimum number of hours before tax credits because this makes a mockery of the ‘just work a few hours’ line that we endlessly hear from certain high profile people who have never been in that position. I also agree that the removal of linking is a devastating blow to anyone wanting to dip their toe in the water. What this all adds up to is this – you are expected to work full-time and be able to cut it, and Jobcentres will be in a position to push those thrown off Incapacity/DLA into these temporary jobs, in the name of gaining work experience, or else the person will face sanctions. As you rightly say, temp posts end up costing people a fortune.
Slave labour through ‘work fare’, temp/low paid work/work not enough to earn tax credits is exactly what this government wants. This subsidises business and to hell with the human cost because mental health service [ex] users are an easily disposable and powerless group for this purpose.
Something i can identify with completely. I have those huge gaps on me CV, for the last 8 years since i left school. I never managed to really finish my education properly. My 1st hospital admission came the year before my GCSEs so the gaps are from then onwards. However by filling it with so many little voluntary things here & there it doesn't help either - because it still doesn't show that reliability factor that employers are looking for. After 50 applications (over half no response & the rest rejections) i have eventually succumbed to another bout of depression & am once again back in a place where i'm not fit to work. I plan (even though i don't feel up to it in the slightest at the moment) to enrole for college in september (and pray i am in a fit state by then) to try & gain some qualifications that will either get me to uni, or at least somewhere further along. However i fully expect that i will run in to financial/benefit issues by trying to better myself this way too.
ReplyDeleteI hope i can get it all sorted & perhaps find a part-time job before my claim is switched to ESA (still on the old system), as i fear the stress of medicals/interviews/being put under the spot light will simply ensue more stress & send me 10 paces even further backwards.
Yes Susie I get that, these are issues which grate me. This high profile person has been very vocal about disabled people working, as in everyone can and should and it’s all possible with the ‘right’ adjustments, the 2 comments echo precisely what I’ve stated:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_IalIoj1Hs
It’s so very different when you enter mental health services in your formative years before gaining a university education or establishing a career. The psychological impact of ending up in services at a younger age before anything is established is different and those with a high profile who claim to speak for others have typically never experienced it.
If you’re able to go to university and can do so practically [unlike the time when this person would have gained it with student grants not loans] that’s great but for some mental health service users going to university and having to work at the same time is what can make it impossible to do. The stress of both at the same time can be too much.
For those who have big gaps in paid employment no amount of voluntary work ever compensates for that and psychiatric history is worse than a criminal record in some respects, little wonder employment advisors will recommend lying but you can’t lie away years!
This is the horrible irony – voluntary work [of choosing] is not allowed as an outcome [only being sick or fit for full-time work are acceptable outcomes] yet voluntary work history is not good enough to get you paid work these days. Mental health service users do more voluntary work than any other disabled group which charities, higher education institutions and charities all benefit from. All that free labour is highly valued but not enough to turn them into part-time and full-time paid posts – why pay for something you can get for free? So charities can state that if they offer ad hoc payment they take no responsibility for how this might affect a person’s benefits, so work has to be turned down because a few hours every few months isn’t enough to live on, declaring it would also mean losing benefits or being found fit for full time work. How ridiculous is this that when people do voluntary work they have to keep it under wraps for fear of it being used against them.
There’s competition for any small bits of charity/Trust paid work from those who are able to withstand the considerable pressure of being freelance and self-employed [it’s very stressful to be scrambling for multiple pieces of work each month securing enough to live and sickness/leave cover].
As you say Susie, employers want reliability, they don’t care how brilliant you are, or what you’ve done, they want to know you will turn up and deliver every day and in the long term without lengthy periods of sick leave so when you have lengthy periods of sick absence it’s nearly possible to prove your worth. Hence why so many people will end up in the dead end manual labour jobs at best, the only places that will take them, because those industries can hire/fire people like throwaway paper towels.
The minimum wage still requires top-ups, government effectively subsidises crap employers, the minimum wage should be enough to live on so that tax credits and housing benefit are not required. I wonder how much money is wasted on subsidising employers who pay peanuts? That money could be used to continue disability benefits instead of it being claimed that disability is ‘unsustainable’ [bankers and wars are somehow ‘sustainable’].
ReplyDeletePeople with a backed up medical need to only work a few hours should be topped up to a full-time minimum wage.
People with a backed up medical need to remain doing chosen voluntary work should be able to remain on disability benefits equivalent to a full-time minimum wage.
People with a backed up medical need who might be able to do some occasional short term work should be able to do so and have it deducted from benefit levels equivalent to a full-time minimum wage.
People who really cannot work at all in any capacity should be left alone.
Excellent blog post. Despite complex health problems and disabilities I attempted to return to work last year.
ReplyDeleteI'd had to meet with Pathways providers almost weekly for over twelve months. There was no help available to 'save' my old job. There were a lot of promises made that I would be 'supported' to find and work in a new job. I ended up doing most of the work.
The Pathways people simply didn't know what to do with someone like me who has qualifications and University education. I found a job just at the point where I was being pushed into self employment.
The employer (Local government) were very supportive and made all the adjustments that it was in their power to provide. They also worked with the Pathways providers and met with myself and Access to Work assessers before I started.
A useful package of Access to Work support was agreed, but this was never fully delivered due to endless flaws and mistakes by suppliers.
This meant that I wasn't able to do my job and placed a lot of strain on me leading to exacerbation of my health and disability related problems. I was hospitalized twice during this employment and eventually had to leave.
The employer got very little return on their investment in me. They spent a lot of money doing what was right. What many people won't know is that employers have to purchase upfront equipment and services that Access to Work have assessed for. They then have to wait for Jobcentreplus to refund them. Smaller employers simply wouldn't have the funds to do this.
I did a lot of sitting around in the office or at home waiting for training, equipment and support to be delivered.
I spent a lot of time on the phone to Tax Credits helpline in order to secure working tax credit (disability element). For the first two months it cost me more to go to work than I was receiving in income.
In retrospect I had never been 'fit for work' and even permitted work or volunteering would've lead to the same end result. I am extremely concerned that cuts in support funding plus increased sanctions/poorly thought out DWP targets will lead to someone else suffering far worse.
OMG Sarah I’m so very sorry to read of your experiences, now you see this is exactly the kind of account that needs to be heard by charities (noteably RADAR, Mind] and individuals who have promoted this [Liz Sayce] who have claimed Access to Work is so great when we know it isn’t, even for people such as yourself who have university qualifications. I mean if they can’t get it right with someone as skilled as yourself they have no chance with people who are more disabled with less qualifications or skills. What has happened to you is appalling, you should receive compensation for this [although we know you never will]. I urge you to consider writing this up for publication even if under a pseudonym.
ReplyDeleteI despair of it all, I really do.
ReplyDeleteI'm on IB & DLA. Went recently to the Jobcentre only to be told they didn't do anything there (oh how I laughed to myself). Finally managed to contact the IB people by phone and was told I would be able to take some basic literacy and numeracy cources. I told them I had 2 degrees and there was a stunned silence quickly followed by "I don't really think we can do anything then". That's it? That's the support they can offer me to get back to work? No alternatives, no opportunities to go on a course or 2 which which might freshen up my skills or lead towards new ones? The answer is no, obviously.
I've decided always to be out and proud about my mentall illness being the cause of the big gaps in my CV and maybe that (as well as being a little bit mental) is why I have not worked for the last 6 years, but just got offered a job (Subject to refrences) last week. Problem being the most recent reference is for the work I did 6 years ago and I was absent for 2 months during a 1 year contract so not getting my hopes up too much yet.
Always looking for ideas for how to overcome these difficulties.
Brilliantly well stated Joanna.
ReplyDeleteI'm up for reassessement, or rather an assassination attempt on Tuesday, but a few days later after first recieving that appointment, I revieved another telling me they've also booked me an appointment to go in just a day later for a work focus interview programme, so it feels like I've already been found guilty without any trial or medical whatsoever.
If I lose, I stand a really good chance to lose even more. My liberty and my life.
Baz
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A passage from Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol".
`Are there no prisons?'' asked Scrooge.
``Plenty of prisons,'' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
``And the Union workhouses?'' demanded Scrooge. ``Are they still in operation?''
``They are. Still,'' returned the gentleman, `` I wish I could say they were not.''
``The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?'' said Scrooge.
``Both very busy, sir.''
``Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,'' said Scrooge. ``I'm very glad to hear it.''
``Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,'' returned the gentleman, ``a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?''
``Nothing!'' Scrooge replied.
``You wish to be anonymous?''
``I wish to be left alone,'' said Scrooge. ``Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.''
``Many can't go there; and many would rather die.''
``If they would rather die,'' said Scrooge, ``they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.''
P.S. I forgot to add after that I'm afraid we as Britain in the 21st century are regressing right back to Dickensian times.
ReplyDeletePsych patient – jesus basic literacy & numeracy is the best they can offer?!
ReplyDeleteBaz – for f*%&$ sake, it’s just blatant isn’t it, it’s social genocide
I find it absolutely unbelievable that they are booking work interviews before people have had their assessments.
ReplyDeleteSo they have everyone's result already determined before you even walk in the room, the assessments are just for show. This is saving money HOW, exactly?? We're seeing more and more that this is actually not a cost-cutting exercise, it's purely to get rid of sick and disabled people as quickly as possible by whichever means they can.
It is blatant. It's neo-political facism, and it's happening right now against the most discriminated against people ever in our society, the sick and disabled, but I wouldn't be allowed to say all this much anywhere else. It makes me feel ashamed to be english.
ReplyDeleteAs (old punk band) Discharge once said, "It's a messed up ****ed up ****ing system"
ReplyDeleteI was told by a job centre advisor NOT to mention in my ATOS "medical assessment" (and we all know what bull**** they are) that I was doing voluntary work as a step towards improving my ability to eventually move back into paid work, as they'd just take it as "proof" that I'm able to work and dump me onto JSA (whereupon I'd be unable to pay all of my bills, so my credit record would be damaged and I'd have to live in fear of bailiffs calling). Can't even mention doing Graded Exercise Therapy to treat CFS/ME, as that is also "proof" of ability to work.
We're all scroungers and cheats now. The walls of class have closed upon us.
Except companies like ATOS, who don't pay UK tax but cream off hundreds of millions to harass sick and disabled people. The mega-rich can finagle deals with our shiny/two-faced hypocritical leaders and pay little to no tax commensurate with their profits, but try to claim the benefits to which your are entitled, and into which you paid NI all of your working life, and you are branded as the lowest of scum.
There are quotas to be met, and **** you if you happen to have an interview or assessment on a day in which a quota must be filled. Maybe they'll get lucky and you'll be driven to suicide by their constant harassment and victimisation. One less dog to feed. More money to be siphoned off to those who need & deserve it the least.
Baz – I agree it is neo-political fascism, and many people are making the link between former Nazi ideology and current fascism, ditto feeling ashamed of nationality.
ReplyDeleteCurrent ideology is far more devious because it will enslave and kill off directly or indirectly many more people than were killed in the Action T4 Programme.
DoomedAndKnackered – yes this all about class as well, the ruling class detest the working class who only exist to serve them. The ‘I’m alright jack’ culture has infected society like a pandemic and there is a perverse jealousy by those unhappy with their jobs and salaries in the middle classes of those unable to do paid employment of a high enough salary which means not being in receipt of any credits. We don’t hear those stuck in low paid hell jobs spewing out fascist venom like the Daily Mail trolls