**Denied use of DISABLED toilet in jobcentre

mrbrightside842

Was there not a men's loo that he could have used instead of the disabled toilet?

skipsmum

Sorry, I have no idea on the law, but DH has a stoma bag and prefers to use the disable loo as its less embarrasing and often cleaner. He has a radar key.
The idea that you have to be in a wheelchair or on crutches to be disabled is so wrong, epilepsy, bowel problems, autism...there are so many hidden disabilities.
OP, I do think you should take this further and make a fuss, the next person in this situation may not be lucky enough to have a relative to help them.

tenmah

Ruby_Moon wrote: »

He may have been rude but some folk just are aren't they?[/QUOTE]

Indeed! :rotfl:

longhotbath

Not every council has a disabilities register - mine doesnt, and has no record of how many disabled people are resident. Totally crazy!!

My son has to be changed on toilet floors as he is doubly incontinent which is horrendous.

Can you meet with the manager, or even higher?

Best wishes, LHB

tenmah

moldy_plates wrote: »

All of them have learning disability registers......

Maybe the County Councils do, but I work for the local Borough Council and we don't have a list.

System

I work in a government office which does not have toilets available for the public. We do have a staff disabled toilet and in exceptional circumstances we will let people use it. The building management have reitterated more than a few times that we are not supposed to do this. However faced with the likes of a heavily pregnant woman, an elderly or disabled person or a toddler being potty trained we will be flexible.

The problem though is that access to this toilet involves passing through 2 sets of security doors and a staff member has to stop doing their job to escort the person to the toilet and hang around until they are finished. This is not practical in an appointment based office especially if all the staff are tied up conducting interviews.

In our building it would take a fair bit of refurbishment to build public toilets that did not involve going behind the scenes or taking a staff member away from another customer for several minutes.

Now don't get me wrong I don't condone what happened to the OP's partner in any way at all. The manager was rude, intransigent and certainly ignorant about what constitutes a disability.

Lack of public toilets in many of the older government buildings in this country date back to the days when certain members of both sides of the community liked to plant bombs.

sheeps68

moldy_plates wrote: »

social services will.... depends if children have a statement for learning disabilities..

I'm afraid you dont just qwualify for children with disabilities register by JUST a statement. Criteria these days are very high. Not many children meet it. Then as you move to adulthood most authorities no longer have a register unless visual impairment.

ShaShaSha

Hi all,

I got a reply from Equality Human Rights Commision, which part of is included below. As thought the MANAGER (yes the man who refused my partner use of toilet was the manager! :eek:) was breaking the law and is discriminating against a disabled person, he has no medical training and cannot pass judgment on who is disabled and who is not. Enough information was given to prove this fact, I.e. that he claims DLA and ESA, explained his medical condition etc.

"Thank you for your email. I am saddened to hear of the situation.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), the Job Centre are required to provide a disabled toilet as a reasonable adjustment. The reasonable adjustment duty is placed upon all goods, facilities and service providers by section 21 of the DDA. This applies to the Job Centre.

The DDA defines a disabled person as someone who has ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day to day activities’. Your husband’s condition would fall under the DDA and if the Job Centre do not allow him to use the disabled toilet then they are guilty of a failure to make reasonable adjustments and are leaving themselves open to legal action."


I also got a reply from my local MP wanting more details to take it further, so hopefully this is going far enough to stop anyone else having such a horrible time. The jobcentres area manager has yet to reply.

There is only one toilet, and it is a disabled one. The staff have there own 3 floors of offices upstairs, which im guessing will have toilets.

My partner has used this toilet before, and its normally the security guards who hold the key and when he explains he has a brain condition its no problem for him to use it, but this particular day the told the security staff to disallow him access to the toilet. When I go into the jobcentre in my chair they are very accomodating, and I have never had a problem. They take particular care to keep me out of the way if I have my daughter with me too - it seems that this man just simply didnt believe he was disabled :mad: If only he could see what he was like 2 years ago, working fulltime and now reduced to begging to use a toilet.

We have decided to carry around a letter from his neurosurgeon which details his diagnosis and condition, and his DLA award letter which will hopefully prevent such incidents happening again. Council has been contacted about registering disabled and we are going to speak to his GP about a medical card which would explain to anyone who needed more proof.

I will keep you all updated on how the situation progresses. Thanks for the supportive messages :A

ShaShaSha

Pam17 wrote: »

I work in a government office which does not have toilets available for the public. We do have a staff disabled toilet and in exceptional circumstances we will let people use it. The building management have reitterated more than a few times that we are not supposed to do this. However faced with the likes of a heavily pregnant woman, an elderly or disabled person or a toddler being potty trained we will be flexible.

The problem though is that access to this toilet involves passing through 2 sets of security doors and a staff member has to stop doing their job to escort the person to the toilet and hang around until they are finished. This is not practical in an appointment based office especially if all the staff are tied up conducting interviews.

In our building it would take a fair bit of refurbishment to build public toilets that did not involve going behind the scenes or taking a staff member away from another customer for several minutes.

Now don't get me wrong I don't condone what happened to the OP's partner in any way at all. The manager was rude, intransigent and certainly ignorant about what constitutes a disability.

Lack of public toilets in many of the older government buildings in this country date back to the days when certain members of both sides of the community liked to plant bombs.

Out of interest, is the staff toilet disabled? According to the DDA there must be a toilet available for disabled staff to use - which in old buildings is going to be pretty difficult.

There is actually no disabled sign on the toilet door, it is equipped for disabled use, but then so are many single toilets as often there isnt room (or actual need) for two seperate toilets. Could a able person use this toilet??? isnt it discrimination against them if they provide for the disabled and not able people? funny thought.....but also pretty true!

sunnyone

The DDA superseeded the need to be registered disabled but some councils still do carry a register, councils do carry a register of SVI/VI and Deaf people.

I am registered disabled and deaf, I have cards to prove this and I use them for discounts/proof of disability when my BB is on my car.

The manager behaved disgracefully and while the EHRC will tell you he broke the law the biggest failing of the DDA is that the wronged person has to be the ones that take action (and fund it), the EHRC wont.

No one should have to publicly beg for permission to use a disabled loo when they have invisable disabilities, its fine to say "thats a disabled toilet" and allow someone to claim the right to use it but to refuse someone whos disabled is unreasonable.

Ive seen a disabled persons bus pass be used as proof of disability, does he have one? the only reason for someone his age to have a pass is disability but ignorant people will ignore that or any other proof offered.

I hope this wont haunt him perminantly, one big thing like this can really knock your confidance, you too it must have been awful for you too especially when they said you could use it, maybe you should have said you needed help to use the loo, not perfect or right by any means but he could have gone.

Dont let it drop, MPs are not normally any good but the odd one is, I hope yours is one of the good ones.

sunnyone