Category: News and Views
If you're in any country that isn't the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, this doesn't apply to you so calm down and get back to creating applications that help people type 140 characters into a box or fake gangs.
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How do visually impaired British subjects? No doubt you'll have heard the news today. It may have alarmed you so much that you may have got out of bed earlier than usual. For those who have been too busy doing the activities described above, I'll explain...
The Conservatives if elected, wish to get a small percentage of incapacity benefit claimants back into work. They plan to assess each claimant and assessments may result in them receiving training or other help in getting work.
Panic! Panic! As you can no doubt imagine, this announcement got The "they're going to stop all our benefits" brigade out of bed early. I heard one man on the radio threaten to kill himself if the Conservatives took power.
"That means we're going to lose all our benefits doesn't it?" No doubt that's what some irresponsible advocates will try to deceive you into thinking, but no. This new policy is predicted to result in less than 20% of claimants being employed.
No disabled person who isn't in work will end up not receiving benefits.
There are already a number of voluntary sector organisations such as the RNIB and Worklink trying to help disabled people find jobs, so this idea isn't revolutionary. I'm sure I remember Labour proposing a similar policy months ago.
You could say that my organisation The Kirklees Visual Impairment Network is also ahead of the Conservatives. We teach visually impaired people who have lost or are losing their sight how to use computers and do things like word processing, read and write emails, and use the internet. With these skills, they may be able to find employment.
Some training and help finding a job can't be a bad thing. It's better to help people instead of just throwing money at them.
Panic over?
labour actually implemented this polocy 18 months to 2 years ago, which is why every claiment of either incapacity benefit or DLA has been reviewed, or is being reviewed gradually. Even people granted DLA for life are and will be under review, so this polocy by the Conservative party is nothing at all new. The difference I understand is very little, and some say has no clear water between it and that of the Labour Party.
Also, this doesn't apply to those of us who're disabled/visually impaired. It applies to people like this stupid woman on the news recently, claimed to've hurt her back and who said she had to use crutches as she couldn't walk, but, ho ho ho, she's been spotted, out, jogging and she's still claiming incapacity benefit. People like her, are fit to go out to work aren't they? This woman is just one of all these good-for-nothing layabouts who don't have a disability, who just can't be bothered, to go out and do an honest, day's, work, have absolutely, no excuse, to be out of work and not paying their way with their own, hard-earned money. They are the ones David Cameron's targeting, they are the idiots who'll lose their incapacity benefits. We are safe, no doubt about that.
Jen.
Jen,
Some would argue that those of us who are blind with no additional disabilities should be out there working. The question is geting us the right support to work.
Mel
"this doesn't apply to those of us who're disabled/visually impaired." Why shouldn't it. Being visually impaired doesn't make you incapable of working for a living.
Why should the government support people who are perfectly able to work? I get that people need support while they are looking for work, but let's be honest - there are very few people who are completely incapable of doing any kind of job.
The problem with so many people in this country is that they don't know how lucky they have it. In most other countries there is no such thing as benefits, and, surprise surprise, the disabled have jobs too. Imagine that.
One of the biggest reasons why so many visually impaired people can sit at home without a job is simply because they can. And that is wrong on every conceiveable level.
I get that there are people out there who are unable to work because of severe disability, perhaps physical, perhaps emotional such as severe depression etc. But there are aledgedly 3 million peiolple on incapasity benefit in this country. I refuse to believe that the severely disabled population of this country is that high.
Well, count me in as one of those who is certainly not, sitting at home without a job by choice! I didn't get in, purely on the grounds of health and safety, probably because I'm still using a stupid long white cane rather than a guide dog. It certainly isn't because I haven't even been trying for something volluntery, let alone paid. the Disability Discrimination act is so, so screwed up, that people can actually, say no on the grounds of health and safety and get clean away with it.
Jen.
Sugarbaby - though there are people capable of working, there aren't always jobs where they live that they can do. Some may say "well move away" but some visually impaired people rely on the good will of relatives for some of the help they get, such as with reading male.
Voluntary work can be harder to find than normal work, because the voluntary sector is more disorganised, and smaller less wellknown organisations aren't always good at publicising themselves, so people don't know they exist, or that they could help those organisations.
Another barrier to employment, is that the likes of Access to Work don't supply equipment until the person has got the job. It would be better if they could promis in advance of the interview, that if you get the job, you'll get the necessary support. Then you could go into the interview knowing what you'll have and what the employer may need to do.
And Jen don't get me started on the DDA. I think you should try taking legal action if you can be sure you were rejected because of your disability, and be sure your disability wouldn't have made it more difficult for you to do the job than the other candidates.
All right, we won't mention the screwed DDA any more, but it wouldn't be the first time my family's thought about taking further action, would've been writing to Jeremy Hunt, had this expenses scandal not kicked off. Na! White sticks put employers right off you, plus the fact you can't see. That's why I hardly know anybody minus a guide dog, who is in work, who isn't on benefits and paying their own way.
Jen.
senior yes I do take your point about lack of jobs, but having said that most of the unemployed are in a similar situation at the moment esp with the economy the way it is, and most of the unemployed are allowed to claim job seekers allowance, but not any kind of benefit that is on a par with incapasity.
The problem I have with people claiming incapasity benefit (I had no idea you could claim it if you were only blind anyway?) is that it puts you under a label of being "incapable" of working, when for many claimants that simply is not the case. But it is sufficiently high as to not offer any insentive for people to actively go to work.
If ICB is reviewed, it should be done in conjunction with some kind of programme to enable people into paid employment.
I get that it's hard, and frustrating when you are knocked back. believe me I've been there, I applied for 168 jobs before I got my first job, and that was in a time when the DDA didn't exist and employers could legally discriminate. But benefits should not be seen as a choice. Benefits should be there for those who genuinely cannot work, and for those who find themselves out of work and need them as a lifeline until they find employment.
The disabled who are genuinely able to work should not be placed under the "incapable" banner with incapasity benefit.
Jen so how many jobs have you been turned down from due to health and safety? What were the jobs?
It isn't true that Incapacity is enough to live off, unless you're in very cheap accomodation, single or living with somebody who is in effect looking after you, such as your parents.
If you're living in a decent property and the rent and council tax aren't cheap, plus you buy your own food as a pose to having it bought for you, and you're not that close to town so going to the supermarket costs nearly £10 in taxis, incapacity is not a luxury. I'm not complaining about the amount people receive, I'm just pointing out that the amount you have isn't so high when you spend the money on bills, essentials, line rental etc.
Having said the above though, I am often amazed at the amount of blind people who have so much expensive equipment which costs thousands of pounds.
true but a lot receive housing benefit as well so that's a part of your rent covered...
In response to Seniors earlier post, what kind of job isit where being blind does not make it harder to do it than one's sighted fellow applicatns. I honestly can't really think of any. I've only had 4 jobs, all as a banking analyst, and I definitely felt the disadvantage at times. I had to invent work arounds, learn about screen readers and scripting to access information I needed, had to memorize whole Excel sheets rather than quickly look over a couple of pictures to understand a trend, had to get copy of notes and presentations in meetings and so on.
I got good reviews and a lot of the code I wrote is still alive, well and operational, but I needed a fancy university degree to even get a remote chance of getting the job. I also had problems because employers are expected to foot the bill for expensive equipment upon hiring you (in Iceland and the U.S. this is the case), even without knowing if you are a good employee or not.
Now I've moved into the accessibility sector while a job in banking is like finding a gold nugget in your sandwich, pretty damn rare. And then I come across another barrier (which you may or may not havein the UK). The Icelandic social security benefit system has a cut off point at an income of around 20000 pounds a year where if you are one pound below it, or even one pens, you get around 300 pounds a month, if you go a penny above it you get nothing, and if you have received some money that year you have to pay it back next year. In addition, if you cross that line, you will not get any type of stipend to buy a car. I was in a situation where I could choose to work extra 25% and get above that amount, but analyzing it I realized I would actually get paid less for working than sitting on my butt. Call me a lazy invalid, but if I am discouraged from working and get paidmore by not doing so, I will take that option any day. In this particular case I nigotiated a pay rise so that the job paid me more than I would've gotten with the system, but in general I think firstly that denying people coverage for a car when they makemore money than this amount (let's face it, it is not high, if it were 50 or 70000 pounds I would understand), especially when it is the people who go out, move around and have the luck or guts or good fortune to get a job who need transportation, and secondly I do not understand a system that is structured so that it could potentially punish you for working and you will receive less money. That system is to blame rather than the lazy people who do not want to contribute, when people want to receive such money rather than work. Systems have to be designed to assist those who can't find a job but also to encourage working and make sure those who do work are better off than if they didn't, at any pay level. At least never worse off.
I realize that rant pertains mostly to Iceland and your situation may be different, but I would not be surprised if you are seeing someofthe same things in your compensation scheme, and I have to take an exception to it and understand those who prefer notworking in this scenario.
Sugarbaby housing benefit doesn't always cover rent in its entirety. It depends on the actual cost of the rent, whether the council thinks that cost is fair, how many people are living in the property etc. The amount of Council tax benefit one receives can be small too, and factors that can influence the amount one gets include whether at least one person in the household is in the education system.
Rent and council tax are still expensive to some people who receive housing benefit and council tax benefit.
Two. One at the Citizen's Advice bureau and one at a local castle, both Administrative assistant posts.
Wow, two hole jobs, I'm impressed with your dogged persistence in looking for work and hope I can match it some day. Did it ever occur to you that you may not have gotten the job do to your charming personality?
lol Jarad.
I'm afraid though Jen that he has a point. You can't consider yourself unable to get a job if you've only applied for two jobs. Any job is going to have a number of applicants, in the current climate any job is probably going to have twice the usual number of applicants, and they can only employ one.
And you won't always be rejected purely because of your disability. There are numerous reasons why someone might not employ people, it doesn't all have to come down to discrimination.
Of course some companies will discriminate, out of ignorance more than anything usually, but there are other factors too, someone else may be more qualified/have more experience/have the type of personality that will fit in better with the team - there can be any number of reasons. And one other reason is often that it's easier to get a job when you've got a job. If you're not working, and haven't done for the past x months/years, it doesn't show great commitment to working from the employer's perspective, and an employer is far more likely to give a job to someone who is currently working. Although I think that attitude has changed a bit in the past months because of the economic climate and the number of people out of work and finding it hard to get jobs.
No, those two companies, without a doubt, discriminated against people with a visual impairment. Now that's why I appear to some, to have an attitude problem. I was brought up to speak my mind, speak out, let it all out int he open, air my points of view, with the unfortunate side effects of being sometimes very oppinionated, not to mention, stubborn, but the wicked sense of humour, the happy, bubbly, funny little person I am comes out on top when I'm not having to deal with the thick and the stupid every inch of the way if I have any hope of ever, stepping out this front door and finally, being the person I'm quite sure I had every intention of being when I formed and implanted myself inside my mother, 26 years ago, back in February, 1983. Those 45 or so people who've added me to Messenger, Skype, Facebook and Twitter wouldn't have added me at all, had they thought I'd had an attitude problem. but if you reckon I do, if you really hate me this much, well, you know what you'd better do, don't you? That's what the Ignore facility's there for. All right, I'll round off with this. If I don't have more or less half the users on The Zonebbs.com, add me to their Ignore lists by next Tuesday, 14th of October 2009, I'm obviously good company, a nice person to be around and I obviously, don't have an attitude problem. That's one week today, fingers on Ignore buttons everybody, go, now!
Jen.
I think post 15 was out of order.
Back on topic though, I don't see why health and safety should be used as an excuse for rejecting somebody from an admin job. Of course we only have your word that you were rejected because you're blind. I'm not sure whether this is your belief or whether you have proof. If you do have proof you should pursue legal action.
There is a tendancy among some visually impaired people who are in work or think other visually impaired people should be in work to make judgements about unemployed visually impaired people. I'm not sure why it is. It's probably something to do with the "blind community" concept.
Just as all sighted people aren't the same, not all visually impaired people aren't the same. Some are more independent than others. Some are more confident than others. Some are more skilled than others. Some are more mobile than others. Some have disabilities or medical conditions that make it more difficult for them to communicate with others and understand.
An unemployed visually impaired person isn't letting down or poorly representing "the blind community". I am an individual. My achievements and failures belong to me, not other blind people who I have never met.
To post 17 "I was brought up to speak my mind, speak out, let it all out int he open, air my points of view, with the unfortunate side effects of being sometimes very
oppinionated, not to mention, stubborn, but the wicked sense of humour, the happy, bubbly, funny little person I am comes out on top when I'm not having to deal with the thick and the stupid every inch of the way..." First of all a wicked sense of humor and being blunt aren't always good qualities to have during a job interview. YOu won't get a job if you think you can behave the same way in the work place that you can on the zone. Being a bitch when you have to deal with stupid people isn't going to get you anywhere, some people are idiots but you still have to be civil to them and sometimes even work with them in a workplace. Just because you have a list of MSN concats you made on the zone who talk to you does not mean you have the social skills necessary to succeed in a work place. I don't know what's available in England but have you tried to have anyone look at your resume, help you with interviewing, etc?
"Voluntary work can be harder to find than normal work, because the voluntary sector is more disorganised,..."
perhaps, i'm not capable to post on this topic since i'm not a citizens of any of this 3 places that our beloved senior have point it out to start with, however, i must say, lots of voluntary organizations is much organised than a normal firms, because their workers are on volunteer bases, and in order to gets volunteers to work, you need to have a high organised level to keep everyone on track.
lots of people takes the advantage of supports that they have and not comfortablely look for job besides on their own comfort zone. long cane or guidedog is not an issue either you can get a job or not, more so important, is the attitudes that one have in order for them to get a job. regardless either he or she has disability or not.
yes, of course, when we have disability of any kind, it put us in to lots of disadvantage, although, some country have lots of support, and have lots of organization who are there to support blind employees and their employers, but in the acture employment world, an employer not necessary wanting to deal with an employee, and the third party. it is a put off for most employers, and it simply shows the vonorability of that person who have disability.
either long cane or guidedog, it still come to the point either you look hard enough or not, or dare i say, are you "desperet" for work. if someone rejected you because you are a long cane user instead of a guidedog user, show them your capability using the long cane. cause, guess what, if there's any emergency happen in a workplace, trust me, long cane will get you out of the building quicker than a guidedog... Jen, don't put off by only 2 company, who rejected you deal to whatever issue. lots of people who have disability and who have employment will tell you this, you will get countless of rejections even before you will dream of having your very first interview. is the matter of constently seeking and not giving up.
My point about the voluntary sector was about the sector as a whole. Yes there are some organisations that are well-organised. They're usually the bigger organisations. Find work with them isn't that hard.
However, some smaller inexperienced organisations don't promote themselves well. There may be some voluntary wrk you could do for them, but you may not even know they exist, and even if you do, finding their contact details isn't always easy. I have come across several organisations which have websites that don't have information about how to volunteer for the organisations, or even if they're looking for volunteers or what they'd like volunteers to do. I make sure my organisation's opportunities are well publicised.
The two Admin posts I went for were both volluntary, as was the 3 months I worked in the People sector of a well known telecommunications provider, thanks to my mother working in the HR department same time, same place. I also forgot to mention the two training scheme posts I applied for earlier this year. These are 50-week paid work placement schemes run by RNIB. They will also provide training and support where necessary, during your time on placement, however, for reasons best known to the two employers concerned, I didn't even get as far as the interview. I sent all the necessary paperwork, applications, photocopies of certificates by recorded delivery, never heard anything back from them since, despite my local RNIB employment adviser at the time, pulling out all the stops to get me in to work. I was lucky there were even two job opportunities going in this smallish community of only 38000 people. Lastly, before I run out of time to post, thanks to the Zone's half-hour time limit, note to post 19, I repeat, you know where the Ignore button is. It appears under the link to my profile at least, 3 times on this board topic, plus the list of logged-on users when I am logged in, so please, don't hesitate to click on that link and blot me out of your life if that's what you really think of me. You will be one in a bloody small minority though.
Jen.
“First of all a wicked sense of humor and being blunt aren't always good qualities to have
during a job interview. YOu won't get a job if you think you can behave the same way in the work place that you can on the zone. Being a bitch when you
have to deal with stupid people isn't going to get you anywhere, some people are idiots but you still have to be civil to them and sometimes even work
with them in a workplace.” Jarad is spot on. And not only do you sometimes have to work “with” them, but sometimes you have to work “for” them. But the difference is that if a perspective employer doesn’t like you, he just won’t employ you. He will have plenty of other candidates to choose from after all. Whereas if you don’t like a perspective employer, you don’t necessarily have plenty of other jobs to choose from.
Ultimately, an interview is your one chance to make a good first impression, and when you’re employing someone, first impressions count for everything, especially if you have a number of candidates to choose from.
I also agree that it’s worth getting someone to have a look at your cv to see if there are any improvements that can be made to it. Like an interview, a cv Is the employer’s first impression of an applicant, and in a climate where employers have potentially hundreds of applicants to choose from, it is possible to be rejected based on the visual presentation of your cv before they’ve even read it, purely because if there are hundreds of applicants it’s just not possible to look at all of them, so sometimes an employer does need to be that ruthless. So a cv needs to be one that stands out, that immmmediately catches the employer’s eye for all the right reasons.
Also ask for feedback, especially if you’ve had an interview. In fact legally you can request your interview notes which will give you a good indicator of why you might be being rejected. Because you can’t always blame the employer for not giving you the job, sometimes you will play a part in not getting jobs, and if you can get feedback, you can potentially learn from your rejections. I.e. if someone else was more qualified perhaps you’re going for the wrong type of jobs and need to set your sights a bit lower to begin with – you can always start at the bottom and work your way up. How do employers think you come across in interview? Professional? Well spoken? Aggressive? Confrontational? (am just using these as examples), knowing how you come across in interview will give you a good indication of what areas you need to work on in order to give the best impression and win over the employer. And that by no means means that you have to change as a person, it just means that sometimes we have to modify our behaviour in certain circumstances in order to get the best possible outcome.
It’s a bit more difficult in situations when you don’t even get an interview, because that could be for any number of reasons from there just being so many applicants that they couldn’t interview all of them, to an applicant just not fitting the criteria for the role. For every job there has to be a shortlisting process, and if you don’t make it to interview it can be hard to establish why.
If you’re interested in voluntary work you could try ringing your local LEA and asking if there are any governor vacancies at local schools? There is a national shortage of governors and LEA’s are usually happy to speak to people who are interested. It will also look good on your CV, and depending on how involved you get you can add different skills..
I also agree that the number of contacts you have on msn has no bearing on your as a perspective employee. Employers don’t employ people they think would be good friends, they employ people they think would be good at doing the job for which they have been employed. I have lots of friends in rl, I don’t think I would employ any of them.
As for this comment: “you know where the Ignore button is. It appears
under the link to my profile at least, 3 times on this board topic, plus the list of logged-on users when I am logged in, so please, don't hesitate to
click on that link and blot me out of your life if that's what you really think of me.” Just because someone posts an opposite opinion to yours does not mean they wish to block you out of their life. Plus the ignore feature is a false reality. There isn’t an ignore feature in real life. Besides putting people on ignore is a bit of a cop out from having to take on board their opinions.
Well, I'm sorry, if you think I should take a load of abuse, you have another think coming! The poster concerned, has been added to my ignore list last night, soon as I saw both, his totally out of order and abusive posts. I will not tolerate abuse, but I will tolerate opposite oppinions up to a point.
Jen.
I thought the RNIB training scheme gave people work placements in the RNIB or with organisations associated with RNIB. I'm surprised the RNIB rejected you. I didn't think they rejected anybody. I know of people who work at RNIBwho come across as looking down on people who have jobs or don't make the effort.
As for the voluntary sector rejecting you presumably that wouldn't have been employment? If you ever discover organisations which reject you complain that they can't get enough volunteers, get in touch with them again and tell them that you are willing to volunteer for them. If they say no, tell them that they can't complain about not having enough volunteers on one hand, while rejecting those who offer to give up their free time for them on the other.
As a person who recruits in the voluntary sector, sometimes it can be very hard to find volunteers. You can't always be picky. Sometimes you have to just recruit who ever is willing unless that person is of extremely low quality or has a criminal record.