Written evidence from Carol Carbine (DEG0115)

My name is Carol Carbine. I am responding to your call for evidence through Scope, the disability equality charity.I want to share my experiences of the barriers I've faced in work and what can be improved to help disabled people in the future.

I've answered two questions below as part of your call for evidence.

What extra support would you benefit from in work? Or what would you change about existing support on offer?

I have to reapply every 12months for funding for my support workers. Each time I have to prove I need support, justify the costs and often appeal before I get the funding I need. My disability wont go away and the whole process is very stressful which has a negative impact on my health.  Funding used to be reviewed 3 yearly why has this changed. Ive also been told that if I need a support worker to stay away over night I now have to get prior approval - previously as long as I was within my allowance I could spend as I needed, why the change. As I work freelance it is difficult (in normal times) to predict when/where work will occur far enough ahead of schedule to ask for approval and what happens if I have already committed to work and am then turned down?

Looking to the future, what does the Government need to improve on to help disabled people get into, stay and progress in work?

Im really worried that as a result of covid and so much remote working or not working that my funding will be cut.  This would mean I wouldn't be able do the type of work that I have done in previous years or work the same amount of days which would reduce my income.

I’d like to have a named advisor not a different person each time so there is some consistency as often notes aren't added to my file and I have to reproduce copies of prior correspondence. 

Id like to be able to submit my claims online rather than having to do it by post - I pay for signed for post since my claim forms have been ‘lost’ on a number of previous occasions. I can submit my tax return online so why not my ATW claims!

I’d like to know what the government's plans are for ensuring adequate ATW funding in 2021 as I’d like to know whether I will have the support I need so I can tender for work.

The disability employment gap has been stuck close to 30 percent for over a decade, and the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic has seen disabled people falling out of work faster than non-disabled people. 

Scope wants the Government to deliver on its pledge to tackle the disability employment gap. The Government must use the opportunity of the forthcoming National Strategy for Disabled People to set out plans to close the gap.

I hope that the evidence I have provided, alongside research from Scope will prove useful to the committee.

December 2020