Bigger girl talk - The value of work and why benefits matter

I deliberated over where to write this but decided as there were other things I may wish to talk about elsewhere I'd do that here.

The ongoing row over PIP and connected payments shows a lack of understanding that just being disabled means you incur costs in your attempt to be as independent as possible that have nothing to do with your ability or willingness to get a job as without them you wouldn't stand a chance of doing what it takes to take on a job like get dressed, get about paying for assistance and equipment and you may need more space than is presumed for a non disabled person which you don't get any help from housing benefit from.

Greater and quicker intervention when it comes to treatment and therapies would help but that area is facing year on year cuts and even insiders in the DWP admit their access to work programs struggle to deliver employment with over a year delays from assessments to aids for work being delivered which means in practice many employers don't employ perfectably capable disabled workers while governments and the tabloid press gaslight disabled people as shirkers turning down jobs.

A few years back a Government Minister here in Great Britain, raised several eyebrows when he appeared to suggest a major measure designed to set a basic level of pay - the National Minimum Wage - ought not to apply to learning disabled employees and the resultant storm left people thinking the idea was discarded.

Recently a noted personality and champion of disabled people and indeed parent of a 'grown up' child with Downs Syndrome, Mrs Rose Monckton decided to raise this topic again as the person who runs a training program for learning disabled adults.

The essence of her argument run that the output might not justify the National Living Wage for those over Twenty-four years plus the National Minimum Wage of Sixteen through Twenty-four year olds and many lived with their parents and so didn't 'need'  more than say Two pounds per hour as their parents provided for them. Hate the expression, but in essence this two pounds would be more like 'pocket money' for them being used for snacks, trips out and clothes rather than say food or housing costs.
By doing this, she argued learning disabled people would be more included in the work force and more importantly would feel they had a place in society that would be valued.

I suppose the first thing is to I say I share the same objective not least for having learning and developmental disabilities on top of physical ones, believe strongly in a more inclusive society and that even people  with learning disabilities should have employment opportunities.
That's where it stops with me because while some may be content with living with parents or some shared home with assistance -which absolutely is their right- the problem with this is it means they could not look for an flat where they would need to find money even if they claimed back some housing costs though other welfare programs.

The second area of concern is we are purposely exempting people on the basis purely of diagnosis and labelling from the everyday wage expectation whereas in the past 'top up' schemes would of helped companies employ people by paying them so they offered the same wages to a disabled employee.

The third area is if the argument is that some work may be therapeutic in terms of teaching life skills, the 'value' of work, retention of abilities which as someone who is disabled I'd agree with, then there was no reason they could not be  permitted to work in a voluntary capacity, assisted with any necessary travel costs and perhaps allowed to keep a small amount of any money they were given by way say of tips without having to declare everything.
That would provide  for much of this, be more flexible and not compromise the notion of everybody regardless of disability being literally of equal value reflected in their wages.

Assessment Two done (and hopefully fixed)

Today is a day after a Employment and Support Allowance face to face assessment which was quite late in getting started as they arrived with notionally only fifteen minutes in a two hour slot remaining and with a hungry migraine ridden me feeling nauseous yawning my head off.
Ideal test conditions, what?
I had worked out this wasn't a suspected benefits fraud appointment but the lack of procedural appropriate communication wasn't helpful which reduced the options to periodic review with seven days notice cos we can or a post Sept 2017 look into whither having accepted you can't be supported or retrained into work easily actually you haven't a hope in hell of EVER doing so and so save them reassessing you periodically.
Fun started when the person who was a bona fide Doctor working for the company asked me to fill out an evidence form to say I had proved I was me so I had Mom fill it out as I can scarcely  bloody well write with a pen and just put a squiggle in the signature box as my hands were off.
That helped!
He then asked for my many and overlapping medical conditions so I gave him print out  of them that was in the April 2017 form and showed him my medication
I then spotted something familiar, the WCA50 form I'd got done a paragraph a day from that year so it obvious what the game was - assessment on a two and bit year old form - that as it happened I had a copy of key bits of and knew back to front having revisit it to reword for the PIP claim I was forced to make a few months back.
So he just explored not questioning each bit so I just went back over tossing examples with prompts from my folks (who tossed some stuff in back up the shortly word but chilling descriptions of how I'm severely disabled and how I need tons of help with all the why bits ticked and added).
As I was migrained out we skipped standing and walking just testing grip, arm, neck, leg muscle strength) which I was 100% confident would confirm what I had said there are clear and real limits and weaknesses showing him my inflamed shaking paws that would match a medical diagnosis.
He then left.
I'm reasonably confident the claim for ESA will stand and have met the phrases ("Descriptors"  for being treated as untrainable and supportable for work and quite likely to remain the same forever as it can't improve over time and isn't responsive to any upcoming treatment.

My schoolwork

One thing I can well recall from when I went to school was there was often some tension around at least the presentation of any work I did at least as compared to any other child in the form and especially if any of it was going to be graded for National Examinations in my teens.

It's safe to say my work looked nothing like theirs with neatly drawn columns and tidy handwriting.
It's not that I don't have problems in holding a pen (it is sadly worse now due to acquired industrial injuries) and controlling fine movements because I do and they're in my Ataxia and link to two elements of Dyslexia because it is very true. Not being able to spell makes making notes difficult and forgetting what ten words back the teacher said doesn't help.
The real problem was that mainly I was in too much of rush to get it finished and didn't care about how my work looked so long at the time at least I 'knew'  what was there and what it said which often excused rather than being given a bit more help to reach everyone else's level.
A few teachers were a good deal stricter on it, not least my Geography Mistress who wasn't averse to spanking me if I didn't come up to standard without a good reason but most weren't.
After leaving school and getting a job which it had to be said I didn't really slot into, this started to become quite an issue with people I had to make hand written notes out for them not being able to read so I was called into a meeting with a Training Advisor and my Supervisor where they decided I HAD to spend ten to fifteen minutes of each workday at work practising my handwriting and handing it for marking each week and that was it.
My handwriting while suffering from an injury in the  early 1990's that can lead to me being unable to write at all is much better than when I left school and this whole episode is a good example of why being strict with me is honestly the best attitude for you to have toward me.
You need to have higher expectations than some of those in my past had for me and be prepared to make me work toward them.

Let's get this started

It may sound strange but there was a time when I did think about working in the hospitality sector either on reception or Maid cleaning with replenishing the complementary drinks, soaps and so on probably because it didn't require me to use things I struggled with so much and I like some autonomy.

Jo life: Transitioning from education to employment

To gauge the extent of some of my difficulties  you need to look at why it was the transfer from the world of Education to Work did not happen when one left the former.
As in many countries, here it is a government responsibility through the schools careers service and government departments to assist the process actively working with you access contacts that are about getting interviews, looking at career options to ensure their is in place a plan for you.
When like me you have multiple disabilities  this is more so and can cover things such as assessments of needs and  abilities that can be developed to aid employability but due to a mis-mash between being educated out of district I wasn't seen as their responsibility and I wasn't seen as that of the district our school was in and each believed the other was dealing with it.
It also was the case as not for the first time in my education, my parents were wonderfully detached from taking an active interest in this that in most situations would of resulted in this being chased up.
Thanks to this I spent the best part of eleven months out of school and out of any meaningful assistance in making a start in employment until I got a referral to a employment rehabiliation centre where I spent four months being assessed for the type of work I might be capable of, what barriers there might be and a formal plan produced.
While there, my difficulties with Math and English were noticed and so I was sent for assessment by a specialist who diagnosed I was actually dyslexic with very poor special awareness. This as with most things about me was ignored although I had suggested as much in my last year in school and rejected by my parents as having gotten one set of conditions they couldn't accept another.
There was remedial teaching in math and english offered as a part of my assessment going through basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division plus spelling, grammar and punctuation. Although I suspect as an institution for school leavers and adults it probably wasn't meant to, like an number of school leavers there, I was smacked across the hand and given a clip around the ear  by the instructors who did treat us more like children which I guess was propably true at least for me cos I was still in a upper tween mindset.
It was the last institution I received any form of corporal punishment at.