The Department for Work and Pensions has been ordered to pay a deaf man £50,000 after an employment judge ruled that a Leeds Jobcentre failed to provide reasonable adjustments to help him find work.
Employment judge Joanna Wade also recommended that the DWP should provide training on deafness awareness and disability discrimination to work coaches, team leaders and disability employment advisers (DEAs) working at the Jobcentre, and that sign language interpreters should give reassurance to deaf people of their qualifications.
The disability discrimination case was heard by the employment tribunal because the Jobcentre is a provider of employment services.
The tribunal found that Paul Rimmer, who communicates mainly through British Sign Language, faced “oppressive” behaviour from Jobcentre staff which contravened the Equality Act.
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The Jobcentre, the largest in the north of England, failed to provide reasonable adjustments to the claimant on multiple occasions, including not providing qualified interpreters and not ensuring that work coaches were aware of the claimant’s needs.
The judgment said that work coaches who invited Rimmer to telephone meetings were “blind” to the claimant’s disability, despite his deafness being clearly stated on his record.
The judge described a six-year pattern of mistreatment by Jobcentre officials who repeatedly discriminated against him as a “groundhog day” for Rimmer.
She criticised staff behaviour that meant he had to “constantly fight for things other people take for granted”.
The tribunal highlighted internal Jobcentre emails in which a DEA “denigrated” Rimmer, tried to block his request for intensive work support and threatened him with sanctions.
The DEA had advised colleagues that Rimmer’s deafness was not a significant barrier to work and suggested his complaints about a lack of reasonable adjustments were an attempt to “sabotage attendance and participation as a way of avoiding/delaying their journey towards the labour market and work”
In a statement, Rimmer welcomed the tribunal’s decision: “I still feel a bit angry about the wasted years but I’m pleased that the truth has finally come out. I have been telling the DWP about the difficulties I have faced for years and finally, someone has believed me.”
“I am proud of what I have achieved and hope that it helps other people as well as myself,” he added. “I know that the same thing happens at other Jobcentres and I hope things will change more widely. I hope it doesn’t just change at Leeds but that the DWP look more widely at the training of staff across the country.”
He was awarded £33,000 for injury to feelings, incorporating aggravated damages of £5,000; £10,000 exemplary damages; and £6,880. The sum totalled £49,900.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We are considering this judgment. We are committed to providing accessible services. Most people claiming health and disability benefits report having a positive experience, and where customers need assistance, we endeavour to make reasonable adjustments to meet their individual needs.”
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1 comment
Sadly, this does not surprise me. When will the government and it’s various departments stop paying lip service to supporting people with disabilities.
I am dreading having to access this service myself based on experience decades ago and it is saddening to hear that more recent experiences people have had shows that if anything, things have worsened, especially when you hear that they have staff with job titles such as Disability Employment Advisers who, you would think, would understand the issues that people with disabilities have with accessing employment and services to help them access employment.
I have experienced massive difficulties with the clowns at another DWP quango supposedly existing to to help people get the support they need once they have found work, in order to get the equipment they need – Access to Work. More like Access to Delays in Being Able To Do Your Job! The first time I accessed this service 25 years ago, I applied for support in October 1999, and they still had not done the report following the so called assessment at Christmas that year, so I lost my job (employer was really clever, putting me on a temporary contract, which they just did not renew, despite the fact that the only reason I couldn’t fully undertake my role was due to the incompetence of Access to Work to do their job.
I then undertook a series of jobs where the employers bought me a large monitor and I just used Microsoft Windows Accessibility (magnifier). I also worked with the various employers IT departments – for example a local authority I worked for, and a local constabulary I worked for, were always amazing – their IT managers would arrange meeting with me and my line manager before my start date and always allocated me support whenever I needed it!
I then worked for the NHS – who decided we should go through the Access to Work scheme. Great I thought, dreading it but was reassured through people on various facebook forums for people with the eyesight condition I have that things were (supposedly) a lot better. My goodness, if only that were true! What they didn’t say was how there was (and always was) a four month backlog just to get your assessment. So I started in the January, eventually had the assessment at the end of April (having started on 1 January!); I thought that was the end of it! However, it then took 3 months for the various bits of equipment to be ordered. It transpired that the first thing was screen magnification software that actually worked with the various apps and systems NHS used as Microsoft Accessibility options didn’t integrate fully – but what was recommended didn’t seem to work properly when I tried it. In July, the requested training from the provider eventually happened – only to find that the software provided was not intended for use with a dual screen set up, so no wander it didn’t work properly! Back to the drawing board!
Further equipment was recommended and the waiting started again – eventually provided in October!
Not all of this was Access to Works fault – the NHS need to accept some of the burden of blame as they were responsible to for ordering the kit and then claiming it back form the Access to Work grant – but we all know that two bureaucratic monoliths, clearly experts in long waits, are going to be a perfect storm…. or so you’d think!
I then went through the same process with my current employer (employer and I decided not to bother with Access to Work as we worked things through well without it!). And guess what? Apply for help at beginning of December, they don’t do assessment until April….. And over the phone, they don’t even visit! So they don’t see the space you are working in, or get a full flavor of the job as they don’t get to meet you, see it, or speak with your line manager to get information that you might not have been aware of due to inexperience.
They make recommendations – some of which were great, but some of which were totally ineffective and would make me slower. I never got the training on the software – partly because employer was resistant….. But then I got a hard time for not using all of the stuff that had been provided for me!
Anyway, rang over, I will get off my soapboax.