Disability and employer not providing equipment needed to do job

shopndrop

Racheldevon wrote: »

Your HR team aren't properly trained to assess your needs, nor will they be as up to date as an OT who has trained in this area and can recommend. You are entitled to request an access to work report

AbilityNet also pointed this out to me this afternoon so I have gone back to my manager and requested a proper assessment. I also mentioned access to work to my line manager but he said he knew nothing about this. Do I need to arrange this myself or request that my line manager arranges it for me?
AbilityNet also made some other suggestions re suitable equipment but I would need to be correctly assessed before they could recommend anything.

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Have you asked
a - why they don't want to pay in $ and
b - why they won't let you claim it on expenses
and
c - why they won't let you actually buy it yourself

a - something to do with systems that won't pay in $
b - maximum we can claim is £10, otherwise employer needs to order it.
c. they insist on 3 quotes and I can't provide another 2.

Sambucus_Nigra

shopndrop wrote: »

a - something to do with systems that won't pay in $
b - maximum we can claim is £10, otherwise employer needs to order it.
c. they insist on 3 quotes and I can't provide another 2.

...2 out of 3 of those are surely 'management discretion' and can very very easily be overruled by a manager or a HR dept.

t0rt0ise

You need to remind your employer of their obligations under the Equality Act. They can't just decide that they won't provide this for you. They have to.

teajug

You will have to arrange for Access to Work give them a ring you will find their details on Directgov website.

Do it as soon as possible as it may take a little time for them to make the assessment., but they are good recommendations for you.

hcb42

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

...2 out of 3 of those are surely 'management discretion' and can very very easily be overruled by a manager or a HR dept.

3 out of 3, how hard is paying in dollars these days, i do POs in euros, dollars and pounds in my job!

cit_k

Would something like this not do? or one of their other products (they do much cheaper ones with normal size keys but much larger fonts than normal also)

t0rt0ise

Racheldevon wrote: »

Access to work will usually fund the full costs -

How much access to work pay is dependent on the size of the company. Under 10 employees and they fund it totally, over that and there is a sliding scale. For example with 10 to 49 employees the company has to pay the first £300 plus 20% of the costs up to £10,000. And so on.

Jarndyce

t0rt0ise wrote: »

You need to remind your employer of their obligations under the Equality Act. They can't just decide that they won't provide this for you. They have to.

It is not quite as black and white as that. They have to do what is reasonable - we are not able to judge on the basis of what we know whether it is reasonable or not.

However if we assume it is a reasonable request then the OP needs to be taking it up with his employer formally. If a simple request is ignored he needs to take out a grievance, and saying that he believes his request is a reasonable one, that it qualifies as a reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act, and that if the employer does not provide it withihn, say, 28 days, he will be pursuing the matter through an Employment Tribunal.

lizzywig

My mum works for an occupational therapy department at an NHS hospital and she tells me you can refer yourself and they will help you assess your requirements.

At my last company we had a trained in house H&S person who's job it was to carry out workstation assessments every time you moved desks. At my current job an independant person comes out who does ergonomic assessments every time we move desks or if there is some kind of problem or when you fall pregnant. They then make their report and recommendations and they are acted upon by the business. I have never known or heard of them having difficulties in fulfilling the requirements...doesn't mean it doesn't happen though I suppose. It does sound to me like your company are being a bit obstructive about it though...