Labour If you claim you can work from home . Doing What Exactly?

Thankfull that this issue does not apply to me ,but i can hardly belive that in this so called civalised county we have a system that treats its sick and disabled with so much contempt , we are not a third world society so why is our goverment allowed to apply third world attitdes and laws to the most vunarable ,its disgusting

I am 76 so not seeking work but if i was i think i would be very concerned about trying to find legit home work,we have all heard of desperate people being exposed to less than honest explotation and even workers being exposed to dangers ,if the DWP Advocates home working for some disabled then it should have some system in place to ensure the welfare of the workers

It's not racist to point out how outsourcing jobs abroad makes it harder for Brits to find jobs. I don't think government departments are outsourcing abroad (you can get these jobs from the likes of Civil Service jobs and the DWP).

That said, private companies absolutely are outsourcing jobs overseas. Only regulation can stop the trend. It's not the fault of British people here, nor those overseas taking on these roles. It's squarely the fault of employers.

Albus, what you say is true and much of the current policies are born from people working from home during covid. Many call centres were switched to phones/equipment in an employees home and some have continued. Interestingly before covid, employees would have found it almost impossible to work from home as employers wanted oversight of their workforce and remote working was low on priorities. So it can be done, but there has to be positive action from the employer.

This is for me the crux of the matter, employers have to be on board. Most people with disabilities find that although they might get an interview they don't get the job. A lot of employers see us as a risk or a burden, rather than someone who can do the job. Their first thoughts are "what will taking on a disabled employee cost me". The support for employers which used to be available, no longer seems to be available or if it is has been shrunk in value and hidden on a website.

Working from home is not the walk in the park that many think. Unless you have a separate workspace, you have always got one foot in work. It is there all the time you are awake and possibly whilst you sleep. I spent 16 years working from home in my last job. Initially it was great as I was out and about meeting people 3-4 days a week but as time moved on my role became more specialised and, apart from about a week every other week and some ad hoc meetings, was very isolated. I was lucky as I was not stuck in a call centre type role where you have to be at work during set hours but my work involved meeting deadlines. Working from home deadlines can become a key issue as there is no-one but yourself managing your work hours and either self-pressure or employer targets means that your work/life balance becomes negative and the only people around, often your family etc, are affected as well. I was fortunate enough to have an employer who had various teams of employees who worked from home and as long as you got your work done then you didn't have to be at a desk during your work hours and were trusted to manage yourself but, as mentioned above, the can be a positive and a negative.

One thing that I know was true with my working from home, which was with a good employer, was that there was never any assessment about my workplace by my employer. Did it meet space/light/ventilation requirements, were there health and safety risks and was a risk assessment carried out, were DSE breaks being taken, are you provided with the right furniture and fittings to enable you to do your job without having any long term health implications, who was paying for energy used whilst working, was there a plan for one to ones or team talks to reduce isolation and are they built into your scheduled working hours. In a workplace there is usually a structure which would work through all of those and other issues, but most employers act as though your home is your responsibility even though the are employing you to work from there.

I mentioned that there was a lot of home working during covid but those individuals were generally already fully trained and experienced employees who had been based in the workplace until home working needed to be implemented. Many of those found it hard because covid ensured all the family was at home unless there was a key worker in the family. If you have children, it is very hard to get younger one to realise that although you are home you're effectively not there. I had several experiences of speaking to someone in lockdown who was working from home only to have an interruption from a family member, pet, broadband issues and/or connection between the employees laptop and the server.

So I would say it is possible to work from home and for some people it could be a real benefit. However there needs to be a lot more consideration, legislation and government support to both the employer and employee to enable home working to be a positive experience.

I'm 62 and have been in full time work since I was 20 with a period of claimed unemployment in the early 1980's due to the economy and about four or five months in 1995 due to health/other reasons and two months in 2019 between using up my redundancy and getting a new job. I have listed my disability on every application which I have made since I was medically retired from the MOD in 1995. I've had a variety of jobs including shop work; running a cafe/art gallery; hospitality/entertainment; working in two separate areas of the civil service; working in call centres; to having specific responsibilities as part of a national team for a trade union for over sixteen years; and for the last few years local government. Recently, due to work pressure, I have had one of the lowest periods of my life. My limited self confidence collapsed resulting in my agoraphobia kicking in and until a couple of weeks ago I had not been able to leave home since the beginning of March and am luckily being supported through the ET process.

I have been supported by a local charity with my application for PIP and had a telephone assessment and am awaiting the results. (I should note that I have worked with other people on their applications and attended their interviews with them but doing my own probably would not have really have reflected the real low that I had hit). Despite the assessor being nice, the depth of questioning really made me feel broken but luckily I was not on the call on my own so my companion could interject. At 62, my employment prospects look very dim especially where I live and although my mental health is my main problem, the last 6-7 months have taken a toll on my physical health. I'm unlikely to find a job with my skill sets match and with only five years before retirement who is going to want to invest in re-training me and my sick absence this year will be a red flag, especially alongside my disability.

In there lies the other key issue with homeworking. If homeworking is going to be fulfilling and a career rather than just a minimum wage (which would end up less than minimum wage taking in home costs) slog, training is necessary. Meaningful training at a distance is a skill for the tutor and the learner, the bigger the group being trained the less likely the training will be successful becomes. Everyone has different ways of learning and to get everyone to understand is going to be repetitive and turn off those who understood at the beginning.

So, I know its an essay to get to a basic answer in some ways. Yes working from home is possible and may really suit some individuals with disabilities but that will depend on a number of factors including the type and seriousness of the disability, the individual's home and lifestyle, the employers real desire to hire a disabled person especially one working remotely and without supervision, what training is needed and how it is delivered, what equipment is needed and what level of security is needed in the workplace, who is going to have to pay to set up the remote working and whether there is government funding for that equipment. If those in the Labour cabinet are not looking at these questions and just decide to push forward with getting more disabled people into work then I believe that it will fail. The real truth of that is though that the only ones who will suffer will be disabled people. US.