Written evidence from Colin White (DEG0153)

My name is Colin White. 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 am on the autistic spectrum and have found HR policies often don't recognise disability very well. Especially when it comes to the link between mental and physical health. The stresses that can be added from the working environment can lead to worsening physical health but often companies consider the two separately. I was under considerable stress from a noisy work area (a common issue for people on the AS is hypersensitivity to external stimulus)  which they eventually recognised affected my mental health but they are still counting an unidentified physical pain that I experienced at the same time as not being the responsibility of the company, despite the pain disappearing when I was given a new more suitable place to work in. There seems to be little understanding that when someone's needs are not being met that it will likely affect both their physical and mental health. I have even been told that as the environment didn't negatively effect others then why should effect me?

I feel all companies should have a health and well-being policy in order to recognise needs of all it's employees to maintain a good healthy balance at work. I also feel that there should be recognition that the best person to advise what is needed to create the right working environment is the person with the disability, as they are the ones who live with it on a day to day basis.

I also feel that there should be some sort of time limit to act or show that an adjustment is not reasonable as it is my experience these things can take a very long time to sort out, often over a year.

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

If access to work could pay for the support directly that would help speed up the process of applying for support.

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