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Deaf Clients
Hi,
I’m posting this after delivering some training locally where I was asked about how deaf people access and claim PIP (i.e can’t phone and no on-line facilities) are DWP helping with these? are agencies supplying interpreter’s? etc??
I wondered if anyone could share their experiences so that I can feed these back
Thanks
I have asked DWP the same question. They were unable to give an answer beyond access via the textphone number and that they have special provisions (unspecified) to identify ‘vulnerable’ claimants. I am aware that many deaf clients (particlarly BSL users) do not / cannot use textphones for various reasons.
You may find the thread about requesting paper PIP claim forms by letter useful.
Our local DWP visiting team will visit Deaf/BSL users with an interpreter to assist with claims etc however there is no direct route for clients to contact them, so they go through us and then I contact the local JCP - not ideal and it is something I am working on… the DWP really ought to have this as a priority especially given their public sector equality duties and that UC is supposed to be an on-line management of claims system.
Thanks - I’ll feed this back
Our local DWP visiting team will visit Deaf/BSL users with an interpreter to assist with claims etc however there is no direct route for clients to contact them, so they go through us and then I contact the local JCP - not ideal and it is something I am working on… the DWP really ought to have this as a priority especially given their public sector equality duties and that UC is supposed to be an on-line management of claims system.
They have told us it is a “priority”... The guidance we were given for people who could not use a telephone was that they could press the hash key as an indicator that they gave consent for a third party to speak on their behalf. They appreciate the shortcomings of that advice but it was an improvement on “ask them to grunt down the phone” which was it’s predecessor.
You would have hoped that the DWP has moved on since this happened.
http://archive.disabilitynow.org.uk/search/z02_09_Se/eagle.shtml
Our local DWP visiting team will visit Deaf/BSL users with an interpreter to assist with claims etc however there is no direct route for clients to contact them, so they go through us and then I contact the local JCP - not ideal and it is something I am working on… the DWP really ought to have this as a priority especially given their public sector equality duties and that UC is supposed to be an on-line management of claims system.
They have told us it is a “priority”... The guidance we were given for people who could not use a telephone was that they could press the hash key as an indicator that they gave consent for a third party to speak on their behalf. They appreciate the shortcomings of that advice but it was an improvement on “ask them to grunt down the phone” which was it’s predecessor.
I actually had a client who had a larygectomy and they ‘allowed’ her to press the hash key in acknowledgement, whilst I answered the questions on her behalf. Don’t know how they could tell if it was her pressing the key…....
Our local DWP visiting team will visit Deaf/BSL users with an interpreter to assist with claims etc however there is no direct route for clients to contact them, so they go through us and then I contact the local JCP - not ideal and it is something I am working on… the DWP really ought to have this as a priority especially given their public sector equality duties and that UC is supposed to be an on-line management of claims system.
They have told us it is a “priority”... The guidance we were given for people who could not use a telephone was that they could press the hash key as an indicator that they gave consent for a third party to speak on their behalf. They appreciate the shortcomings of that advice but it was an improvement on “ask them to grunt down the phone” which was it’s predecessor.
I actually had a client who had a larygectomy and they ‘allowed’ her to press the hash key in acknowledgement, whilst I answered the questions on her behalf. Don’t know how they could tell if it was her pressing the key…....
Clearly this is where that iPhone 5S fingerprint tech. will come into its own :)