APPENDIX 17
Memorandum by the RNID
Summary of Recommendations
- Registration and orientation officers should
be trained to provide good quality advice about the appropriate
benefits to claim.
- There should be officials at all gateway sites
who can communicate with profoundly deaf claimants.
- People with most severe disabilities should be
invited to gateway interviews on a non-compulsory basis.
- There should be full textphone access to call
centres during the forthcoming pilots.
- All personal advisers who deal with deaf clients
should have had deaf awareness training.
- Referrals should only be made to other welfare
agencies with the claimant's consent.
- Advisers should be fully trained and able to
provide comprehensive benefit checks from the start of the gateway
programme.
- There should be assurances that "disabled
access" to the gateway includes methods of communication
as well as physical features of premises.
- Advocates should not be expected to provide informal
communication support at interviews. It is the responsibility
of the gateway agency to provide such support.
- The Government should clarify the circumstances
in which it expects home visits to be necessary.
- Disabled people who incur extra travel costs
will be reimbursed.
- Gateway officials should try to contact a claimant
with communication difficulties by alternative means before deciding
that they have failed to take part in an interview.
- There should be a presumption of "good cause"
in all cases where claimants with communication difficulties have
failed to attend an interview.
- The sanctions regime be sufficiently flexible
to allow for lover reductions where this will cause hardship,
and to protect any elements of a benefit which are paid in respect
of a dependent partner or child.
- There should be a statutory obligation to decide
all gateway appeals within one month.
- National implementation of the single gateway
should be delayed until the Government has been able to evaluate
whether the specialist or generalist personal adviser model is
more effective.
1. Introduction
1.1. This paper is a response to the joint inquiry
by the Social Security Committee and Education and Employment
Committee into the Single Gateway. The RNID welcomes the opportunity
to contribute to the inquiry.
2. Background
2.1. The Royal National Institute for Deaf People
(RNID) is the largest charity representing the needs of the 8.7
million deaf and hard of heading adults in the UK. As a membership
charity, we aim to achieve a radically better quality of life
for deaf and hard of hearing people. We do this by campaigning
and lobbying vigorously by raising public awareness of deafness
and hearing loss by providing services and through social, medical
and technical research.
2.2. RNIA analysis1 shows there 8.7 million
deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK: Of the 8.7m;
- 2m have hearing aids and at least a further 3m
could benefit from hearing aids.
- Around 673,000 are severely or profoundly deaf.
- 50,0002 communicate through British
Sign Language.
- 420,000 do not have enough hearing to be able
to use a voice telephone, even with a device to make it louder.
- 3.3m deaf and hard of hearing people of working
age (16-65 years) in the UK. 153,000 of these are severely or
profoundly deaf.
3. The Communication Challenge
3.1 Deafness is different from most other disabilities
in that communication is the key issue. In order for a deaf or
hard of hearing person to participate in any of the opportunities
in what is a hearing world, including the gateway to work, he
or she will need human and/or technical communication support.
3.2 The communication needs of deaf and hard of hearing
people are not homogeneous. Each individual will have differing
needs depending their level of hearing loss, their preferred method
of communication, their ability to understand written or spoken
English, and so on. This means that, in order for the gateway
to work as a route into work rather than a revolving door back
to the dole queue, the varied communication requirements of deaf
clients must be taken into account.
4. Registration and Orientation
4.1 Registration and Orientation (R&O) officers
will be responsible for identifying appropriate benefits to claim
and for making decisions to waive or defer interviews. Where a
claimant is potentially entitled to more than one overlapping
benefit they must receive good quality advice about the pros and
cons of taking a particular option. For example a deaf person
may be able to claim either contributory jobseeker's allowance
or incapacity benefit. He or she will need to understand the full
implications of both options. We recommend that R&O officers
should be trained to provide good quality advice about the appropriate
benefits to claim.
4.2. If a profoundly deaf claimant walks into a gateway
agency without a prior appointment it is important that R&O
staff are able to conduct the initial interview. This means for
example, that staff with signing skills or the ability to communicate
with people who lipread, must be available on site. If it is not
possible to conduct the R&O interview immediately this should
not result in any delay in determining benefit claims. The provision
of communication support should be the responsibility of the gateway
agency, and not the deaf individual. To this end we recommend
that there should be officials at all gateway sites who can communicate
with profoundly deaf claimants.
4.3 From November 1999 the call centre pilots will
be launched. This should mean that the R&O stage can be handled
over the telephone. It is not cleat whether the call centre will
be accessible to textphone users or those using the RNID Typetalk
relay service. The call centres should have a published textphone
number and staff should be trained to use both textphones and
the RNID Typetalk relay service. Whilst it may be possible
to register a claim through a textphone call, it may prove more
difficult to conduct R&O interviews by textphone. Potentially
the call centre pilots could provide useful evidence about the
most appropriate R&O arrangements for deaf and hard of hearing
people. We recommend that there is full textphone access to
call centres during the forthcoming pilots.
5. Waived or Deferred Interviews
5.1 Gateway officials will have the power to waive
or defer interviews in certain circumstances, e.g. people who
are terminally ill, over pension age, or getting housing benefit
or council tax benefit whilst in full time work3. However,
the Government is unwilling to prescribe group exemptions for
severely disabled people, full-time carers or people with children
under 5. The Government argues that this "blanket provision"
would result in whole groups of claimants being "excluded
from the possibility of working in the future4.
We believe that personal adviser resources should not be spent
interviewing the most severely disabled people who have little
or no meaningful prospect of obtaining work. We agree that no-one
should be "excluded" from the gateway services.
However, we recommend that people with the most severe disabilities
should be invited to gateway interviews on a non-compulsory basis.
5.2 The decision to waive or defer interviews for
new claimants will be left to the discretion of R&O officers.
R&O officers will, therefore, need to be aware of the problems
faced by people whose onset of disability is recent. The Government
should clarify what training and guidance will be given to R&O
officers to ensure that the powers to waive or defer interviews
are exercised sensitively and appropriately.
6. Personal Advisers
6.1 The Government says that the gateway will provide
claimants with a "single point of contact for all their
benefit requirements". However, this does not appear
to mean an integrated benefit service or one-stop shop. Rather
the gateway appears to be a single entry point to the benefit
system regardless of whether the claimant makes initial contact
with the Benefits Agency, the Employment Service, or a local authority.
We assume that a range of government departments will continue
to deal with all subsequent benefit-related transactions, e.g.
decisions and payment issues, reporting changes of circumstances,
and so on. It is not clear whether claimants will retain the same
personal adviser, or return to the same gateway site throughout
their spell on benefit. The scope of this "single point
of contact" needs to be clarified to ensure that claimants
understand where to go after initial entry to the benefit system.
6.2 The personal advisers will have a "general
advisory role" which means there will not be dedicated
advisers for particular client groups, e.g. lone parents, disabled
people, and so on. Advisers will be expected to "link
in to and refer the client on to specialist support services where
appropriate".5 Whilst we understand that personal
advisers will not be disability specialists, advisers who deal
with deaf and hard of hearing people will still need to understand
their specific communication requirements. We therefore recommend
that all personal advisers who deal with deaf clients have had
deaf awareness training.
6.3 We understand that personal advisers will refer
disabled clients to Disability Employment Advisers (DEA) and Disability
Service Teams (formerly PACT teams). However, this raises questions
about the boundary between the personal adviser and the DEA. Is
the personal adviser's role limited to conducting the gateway
interview and then referring disabled clients to DEAs? Will the
personal adviser retain an ongoing role after referring a client
to a DEA? What assistance can a personal adviser provide that
a DEA cannot? We would like the Government to clarify the personal
adviser's role in relation to Disability Employment Advisers.
7. The Scope of the Gateway Interview
7.1 Although the interviews will primarily be "work-focused"
personal advisers will also have a broader welfare role. The Government
has said that personal advisers will "provide access to
a range of help and information on work benefits and services
such as childcare".6 The precise scope of
the welfare role is still somewhat unclear. Advisers will not
be social workers, but will be expected to refer clients to appropriate
agencies. We would like the Government to clarify what training
or guidance will be given to advisers so that they can identify
need and refer to the appropriate welfare agency.
7.2 We welcome the fact that personal advisers will
be able to identify unmet welfare needs. However, we are wary
of turning personal adviser interviews into compulsory welfare
checks. We do not think it is appropriate for advisers to investigate
non-employment aspects of a claimant's personal circumstances
as a mandatory part of the gateway interview. This type of investigation
will make the interviews too intrusive. We believe that advisers
should only offer advice about wider welfare services if this
is what the client wants. We therefore recommend that referrals
should only be made to other welfare agencies, such as social
services, with the claimant's consent.
7.3 We welcome the fact that advisers will be able
to provide information on benefits. However, it is not clear whether
advisers will have the expertise to perform multiple benefit checks
and "better off" calculations. The Government
has said it wants advisers to provide claimants with "personalised
calculations to help see what their net income could be if they
were in work", but that this is a "long term
intention".7 The Government has not said what
benefits training will be given to advisers, or whether advisers
will have access to computer programmes to perform benefit checks.
We think that gateway advisers should be fully trained and
able to provide comprehensive benefit checks from the start of
the gateway programme.
8. Access to Interviews
8.1. Work-focused interviews may take place at a
range of locations. These will normally be Benefits Agency, Employment
Service or local authority premises. The Government has given
a commitment that the interview premises will be accessible to
people with disabilities.8 We welcome this commitment.
We would also like to see assurances that "disabled access"
to the gateway includes methods of communication as well as physical
features of premises.
8.2. For deaf clients access means more than the
fitting of hearing loop systems and the installation of textphones.
Gateway staff must be given deaf awareness training so that they
can understand the specific needs of deaf and hard of hearing
clients. There must be full textphone access to gateway agencies
and training for gateway staff in using textphones and the Typetalk
relay service. Communication support must be provided at interviews,
i.e. CACDP registered sign language interpreters, lip-speakers,
palantypists and note-takers. Written communication with profoundly
deaf sign language users, who may not be proficient in written
English, must be in plain language.
8.3 The government has given an assurance that "People
who need help will be able to take someone with them, whether
that person be a friend, a parent-an advocate in whatever sense-to
help them communicate".9 We welcome this commitment.
However, the right to an advocate should not be confused with
the entitlement to communication support for deaf claimants. We
recommend that advocates should not be expected to provide informal
communication support at interviews. It is the responsibility
of the gateway agency to provide such support.
8.4 Gateway agencies will have the power to visit
clients at home in order to conduct work-focused interviews. The
Government is yet to clarify the circumstances in which a home
visit will be appropriate. The Government has indicated that specific
groups will not "automatically receive home visits".10
The decision to conduct a visit will be left to the discretion
of gateway officials at he R&O stage. This places a large
responsibility on R&O officers. We recommend that the Government
clarifies the circumstances in which it expects home visits to
be necessary.
8.5 Claimants will not normally be reimbursed their
travel costs to attend interviews, apart from "exceptional
circumstances" such as "when a claimant might incur
excessive costs in going to the interview".11
When sites were selected for the gateway pilots the criteria used
were that "wherever possible, people should not have to travel
for more than 45 minutes each way or spend more than £3 on
a return public transport fare to and from their interview".12
Disabled people who cannot use public transport may need to spend
far more than £3 on taxis fares to attend interviews. It
is not clear whether they will be reimbursed any travel costs.
We would like the Government to clarify how decisions will be
made to reimburse travel costs. We recommend that disabled people
who incur extra travel costs will be reimbursed.
9. Repeat Interviews
9.1 Claimants who are in receipt of benefit will
be invited to attend repeat interviews either at periodic intervals
or at specific "trigger points". The precise
trigger points will depend on the circumstances of the individual
claimant. The Government has given some examples of circumstances
which may act as trigger points.13 For example, a personal
capability assessment for incapacity benefit could trigger a repeat
interview for a disabled claimant.
9.2 The issue of trigger points raises a number of
questions. Will the circumstances which act as trigger points
for repeat interviews be prescribed in regulations, or will this
be left to the discretion of gateway officials? Is the Government
planning to publish guidance to gateway officials about the circumstances
that will act as trigger points? When no specific trigger point
can be identified in advance, how often will claimants be recalled
for a gateway interview? We would like the Government to provide
greater clarification on what circumstances are likely to constitute
trigger points.
10. Failure to take Part in an Interview
10.1 If a claimant fails to take part in an interview
he or she will face benefit sanctions. The Government has said
that sanctions will apply "in the event of a third failure
without good cause to attend an appointment14.
If there is evidence of communication difficulties or mental health
problems it may be inappropriate to write to a claimant with new
interview dates. We recommend that gateway officials try to
contact a claimant with communication difficulties by alternative
means (eg by phone or via a registered third party) before deciding
that they have failed to take part in an interview.
10.2 Regulations may define what constitutes "good
cause" for failure to take part in an interview. It is not
yet clear whether the Government intends to lay regulations defining
"good cause" under this power. If regulations are planned
we would like to know how "good cause" will be defined.
The Government has suggested that "good cause" would
apply if someone was ill, or if they did not understand that they
were required to attend an appointment due to language or literacy
difficulties15. This latter safeguard is very important
for profoundly deaf people for whom BSL is their first language,
who may require assistance with written correspondence. We do
not want the definition of good cause to be too prescriptive.
It should be sufficiently flexible to allow for a wide range of
circumstances. However, there should be a presumption of "good
cause" in all cases where claimants with communication difficulties
have failed to attend an interview.
10.3 The Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill will create
a range of powers to terminate a claim or to reduce benefit to
ensure compliance with the interview requirement. Much of the
detail of how benefit reductions will be calculated and applied
will be left to regulations. We recommend that the sanctions regime
be sufficiently flexible to allow for lower reductions where this
will cause hardship, and to protect any elements of a benefit
which are paid in respect of a dependent partner or child.
11. Appeal Rights
11.1 A claimant will have the right of appeal against
a decision that he or she has failed to take part in a work—focused
interview. Currently, appeals handled by the Independent Tribunal
Service can take several months to be decided. In view of the
hardship that the new sanctions regime will inevitably cause,
the government must take steps to ensure the prompt disposal of
appeals against decisions which result in benefit sanctions. The
new decision making and appeals procedures, which are being implemented
as a consequence of the Social Security Act 1998, will mean that
the time limits for lodging appeals will be reduced from 3 months
to 1 month. The Government has promised that the new appeals procedures
will be faster. However, whilst new duties have been placed on
claimants, the Government is under no corresponding statutory
obligation to deal with appeals promptly. We therefore recommend
that there is a statutory obligation to decide all gateway appeals
within one month.
12. Pilots and Timeframe
12.1 The Government is launching a series of gateway
pilots ahead of national implementation in April 2000. The basic
model pilots will be launched in June 1999. The call centre and
private/voluntary sector pilots will be launched in November 1999.
We cannot understand why the Government is rushing into national
implementation as early as April 2000. Firstly, only preliminary
findings from the basic model pilots will be available by then.
Initial findings on the call centre and private/voluntary sector
pilots will not be available until summer 2000, and final evaluation
reports on all the pilots will not be published until 200216.
Secondly, the Government is pressing ahead with the "generalist
adviser" model, despite, at the same time running pilots
with dedicated personal advisers for lone parents and disabled
people. We recommend that national implementation of the single
gateway should be delayed until the Government has been able to
evaluate whether the specialist or generalist personal adviser
model is more effective.
April 1999
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