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EQUALITY MONITORING QUESTIONNAIRE ? is it applicable in all regions

JosephT

There is a separate body dealing with this Form in Northern Ireland ( NI). Department for Communities (DfC).
Its a fairly regular Equality Opportunity sort of Form..
However, my attention was drawn to it on a couple of areas.
Firstly, on the actual necessity for such a Form in the first place. What has it got to do with PIPS ESA etc ..what religion, racial group you belong to.

Secondly do these forms exist in all regions of the U.K., ie England and Wales, Scotland ?

There is a somewhat worrying line at the beginning of the form which reads as such
"...Although completion of this form is voluntary we would strongly encourage you to complete it.. ..."
It is somewhat a complicated picture over here in NI regarding moving from DLA to PIPs... mostly due to what is known as Welfare Reform Mitigation Measures ..and who actually benefits from them and for how long etc...

My concern is to the WHY... this Equality Monitoring Form, and more importantly for claimants as to why they are being asked in the middle of an Equality Form, about details regarding there disabilities ???
Very worrying ... and it seems a totally unnecessary intrusion and secondary questioning of their claim...
Does anyone in England etc have to do the same type of forms when applying for PIPS ESA .ETC
Thank you

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Comments

debsidoo

Hi @JosephT
i suspect the reason for this questionnaire is so that the government can compile statistical data regarding the success rates of different groups regarding PIP. They will compare things such as race,sex,religion etc to make sure that all groups are being treated equally when making a claim.
Most of this data is just anonymous numbers when publicised.For example what percentage are men and what percentage are women.
As you said you don’t have to fill it out it’s just a part of their diversity policy.
You can find information about this on google.It will explain it better than I can.
Debsidoo.x

Topkitten

I can see that race, sex and religion all having an impact on lifestyle so, in some cases, might need to be taken into consideration. Despite what most people seem to think we are not all treated equally in law or daily living, low pay rates for women, for example, still exist.

I haven't heard of the form myself but that isn't particularly unusual, most of us only know the things we have had to deal with. I have no idea whether it is applicable anywhere else.

However, if they are trying to find out whether equality actually exists then certainly knowing people's disabilities would be relevant. If, as you say, there are new complications being introduced they may simply be trying to work out if they are working or not.

In most cases supplying personal information is at a persons discretion. If you don't want to do it then, from the sound of it, you don't have to. Mind you, I tend to be more than a little paranoid about providing my own information if I don't have to, lol!

TK

Yadnad

This is a subject that really annoys me. I have yet to see on any government produced document that is attempting to collect this type of data that it is voluntary.
I agree it is compulsory to ask for it but not compulsory to provide it.
Too many people have mentioned to me in the past that they are worried as to where this information might end up.

It is not a requirement or indeed necessary to disclose this information even if at some later date they ask for a reasonable adjustment.

Besides which personally I have never known anyone for any reason or purpose to ask anyone to provide a reasonable adjustment for anything.

Yadnad

Username_removed said:

Meet someone who repeatedly asks for EA 10 reasonable adjustments for claimants (and myself as rep)

Seriously Mike? I wouldn't know where to start or even what to ask for. I would imagine that also goes for most people.

What do you normally ask for and why?

newborn

Power to your elbow Mike. It is improbable anyones access to the local council pool will be significantly affected by filling in pages of info. on their great great grandparents' ethnic or cultural origin. Unlikely, too, that their experience of the pool will depend on their bedroom habits.

If, on the other hand, there is no parking, and they can't walk far, it would stop them using the pool. If the entrance is via turnstile and they use a wheelchair, they are barred from entry.

If the tickets are sold via a counter above the heads of wheelchair users, they can't see the options or information others have, nor can they avoid the requirement to yell personal details to the unseen unheard counter staff.

Do they have equality of access to services if the staff, and the gym users, take all the lower lockers for the day, leaving a wheelchair or crutches user to beg and plead for passers by to assist in carrying and reaching, particularly when leaving the pool and rapidly getting dangerously cold?

Or if the changing room is too small for the chair. Or if there's no well rehearsed routine for staff to assist to the pool lowering transfer chair. Or if the system involves mass timed sessions, and it takes a disabled person a long time to shower and change, in competition with the incoming and outgoing crowds.

Or if someone is precariously using crutches on a slippery wet floor, especially when uncontrolled children are running round.

Or if a lot of disabled people desperately need hydrotherapy temperature, not conventional as set by amateur athletic swimming association 30 years ago.

Or if vision is poor, or hearing, and the system requires a good level of both to negotiate the access and the rules.

Or, what of those on the autistic spectrum and similar conditions, who must avoid unwanted noise, so need the musac switched off, and noisy people excluded, for some sessions. What of those who cannot avoid making noise and need their own session where this will be acceptable.

Or if old, injured, frail or badly disabled are too weak to withstand or avoid exited children and boisterous men. Or if they require a small quiet group where a disabled body will not be remarkable.

But, after two sides of A4 on every imaginable permutation of race, the forms typically either omit age and omit disability, or else allow a single tick box.

That gathers no meaningful information on those 'users or excluded potential users of services' who are 'denied equal access because it is either impossible or unreasonably difficult'.

Yadnad

Me I just have to accept whatever the limitations are.
I am deaf and need the use of two hearing aids. Try travelling on public transport with a bus/train full of people and attempting to have a conversation with the person sat with you. It's like being surrounded with people who are all shouting at the same time.

Try giving yourself an injection of insulin in a crowded public space. Not so much being the lack of space but more so the comments and looks I get about being a junkie at 70.

Try getting out of a supermarket full of people when a sound or voice triggers flashbacks and you feel that you are back in that place you don't want to go in your head. That's when trouble can occur as I push my way through towards the exit not caring who I hit or hurt on the way.

But the DWP with their functional testing says those things can't or won't happen.