28 January 2020
Does The Government really want disabled people to work?
In recent years the government has told anyone who will listen and anyone who does not want to know, that they are fully committed to ensuring disabled people can work, and if they can’t, can get the support to which they are entitled. However statistics and experiences of such people suggests this is not the case. David Wilkins who is a talented, qualified but disabled man is an example of this. His story shows not only how hard it is to find a job as a disabled person but what can happen if you dare try to find work instead of staying at home.
According to the Strategic Commissioning Statistical Bulletin, in 2011 there were 43,354 individuals living with a long term health problem or disability here in Medway, which equated to 16.4% of all Medway residents. Of those citizens 22,090 people were claiming a disability benefit (8% of Medway residents). Of those with a disability, 55.4% were either employed or self-employed and from my experience the majority of the remaining 44.6% would love to work but either have a physical or mental impairment that would supposedly make it impossible to do so. Others such as Medway resident David Wilkins are unable to find a job due too few considerate, flexible and supportive employers who are willing to embrace and work with them and their disability.
Who is David Wilkins? According to David he is an ordinary 32 year old, indeed he likes to joke that he is the modern equivalent to Emperor Claudius, the ugliest and most stupid emperor ever to rule Rome. But in my opinion he is a highly educated, funny, adventurous and confident person. He is a trained Journalist and has written about his international trips in his blog (details below). David also happens to be completely blind and partially deaf, reliant on 2 hearing aids.
At the end of 2018 David undertook a 5 month working internship at the European Parliament in Brussels. Because of this he has spent the past 12 months battling with the DWP over his right to certain benefits, benefits he is fully entitled to. Having had to come off ESA when leaving the UK, he was automatically transferred to Universal Credit upon his return from Belgium. But he was only told this after spending months been shunted from department to department with people not knowing what he was supposed to apply for. An argument with the Inland Revenue over his not having paid National Insurance made things even more complicated. He has faced months with no income apart from his PIP (Personal Independence Payment) and even this stopped at first due to a computer glitch. Had he not had an understanding landlord, he would have at best become a regular user of Medway Food Bank and at worst homeless.
David is just one of many in Medway struggling to make ends meet because they have a disability. The DWP send him forms he is unable to complete and is reliant on others to fill these in, often calling upon his Dad for assistance. But he shouldn’t have to rely on others when there is a fully accessible and simple answer – email, however the DWP refuse to send him forms in this way due to perceived security concerns, concerns I refuse to accept considering the number of secured documents I have electronically completed and signed in my 13 years of self-employment.
I met David at the first Medway Green Party meeting I attended, last year in June, he is the first blind person I have met and in order to get to know him and understand what it’s like to have such a disability I formerly interviewed him a few weeks later. I discovered that David is a true adventurer who has not allowed his “disadvantages” to stop him experiencing life or allow other’s assumptions to confine him and I’m certain that if an employer would take the time to understand him and his needs, they would see that his talent and take on life would make a great asset to their publication.
We discussed the technological barriers he in increasingly facing across various social media platforms “it’s becoming more and more pictorial now” he says. “And most technology is all about visuals which means if you’ve got no sight its bad news!” he told me about getting abandoned in one of the most crime infested roads in South Africa and how he sailed the Bay of Biscay with the crew of the Tenacious (a tall ship sailed by disabled and able bodied people).
Since our first interview, David’s story has appeared on BBC South East, he has sailed from Liverpool to Portsmouth and appeared on stage in front of 12,000 students at Liberty University in the US. This year he is volunteering with Medway Night Shelter and is busy learning German and Hebrew.
David is finally in receipt of Universal Credit, but for the last two months has had regular arguments because the Housing Benefit component was lower than the mount agreed. “January’s been the first month where they didn’t mess me about” he told me over the phone “and it’s still only just about enough. If my rent was charged at market value I’d have no money for food.” Because the system will not be backdated David has received no compensation for the year he spent fighting the DWP and although he is fully entitled a technicality over his National Insurance payments means he cannot have ESA anymore. He has been forced to apply for the Universal Credit equivalent, meaning he must face yet another interview describing his disabilities which he has explained to the DWP a dozen times. “It’s undignified and humiliating” he tells me “but hopefully it will all be over by Easter…no not Easter, let’s say next Christmas… if I’m lucky.” Although cheerful and optimistic David regrets that his experiences with the DWP have left him extremely cynical about their promises. Even if David were successful, once the benefit is in place the DWP will cease assisting him in finding a job and they will expect him to “sit at home on benefits like a good little disabled person”. Our disabilities don’t make us less of a human, in fact I believe they make us more, we bring something to the table that most people will never have the opportunity to understand.
Disability Statistics
https://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/8181/Disability-in-Kent.pdf
David’s Blog
https://davidwilkinswords.blogspot.com/
BBC Interview
Liberty University Appearance
For more information about Norrie Disease
https://norriedisease.org.uk/
Full Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsC1naTJsDQ
Find out more
Sign up for updates
