Access To Work Funding

[Alex_22051]

Hello all,

I haven't been on the forum in a good few years, what a wonderful resource it still is.

I'm a nurse working in with local Jobcentre's to support people with disabilities and/or difficult health conditions into employment and training.

With regard the Government's Access To Work scheme, I was wondering if anyone has direct experience of the process? The main thing I cannot get my head around is that it would appear the disabled person must FIRST secure the paid job and THEN apply for Access To Work support. I think the exception to this is applying for support to help attend a job interview.

I appreciate the funding is not a basic entitlement and not just dished out frivolously, but the Access To Work funding/support could be a deal-breaker for an unemployed disabled person who is close to entering employment. Unless I am not getting the point, the disabled person would accept the job, sign a contract, and start the job, with probably no real clue if they will get any support or not from Access To Work.

Thanks for your time.

Alex

[bowlingbun]

My son has been a steam enthusiast all his life, we own a 10 ton steam roller, and a traction engine, and somehow, despite his brain damage, he can drive them - they work differently. Sadly, his dad died 16 years ago, life changed forever.

He was approved as a volunteer at a local railway about 9 years ago, but his usual support staff didn't take him, all they had to do was sit and read a book!

Then I was told his name had been put down on a waiting list for "Ways into Work" . We waited patiently for over a year, then he was taken off the list, without my knowledge, then put back on it, and then off it again. Absolute fiasco.

All he wants to do is polish the engines and being amongst fellow enthusiasts.

I have heard some others with LD talk about their "jobs" they've been given, but they aren't real jobs, with pay, contrat, hours, etc. People with LD need to develop their confidence as volunteers then just maybe they might be able to work in the normal sense, but in the current climate, unlikely.

[Charles_2112]

It's probably worth talking to someone at Jobcentre Plus about Access to Work. The reason you have to have the job first, as I understand it as a former employer, is that different companies have to pay a different percentage of the adaptations/equipment costs. For example, a charity would probably have to pay nothing towards the cost unless it's a physical adaptation like installing a disabled loo, whereas a large company would have to pay the lot. Smaller companies would have to pay a smaller contribution. Having offered you the job, they can hardly withdraw the offer without falling foul of equality legislation.

That's my understanding - but check with Jobcentre Plus.

[Alex_22051]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

Alex