An Electrician in Newport, who in a few weeks will be back at work in the job he enjoys with the company he is happy with, was told by DWP, your fit for work and if you cant be an electrician right now you should quit that job and find another one.
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00:00Hello sir, what's your name? Martin Flowers. Hello Martin, we're here in Newport and
00:05you're a bit worse for wears there, you've had a, you broke your nasty break on your
00:10on your foot and your leg while you were doing your work as a sparky. Yeah, just
00:16one of those everyday accidents you just don't, you know, you can't foresee.
00:22Well yeah, you're up on a ladder, bump, wobble, wobble. Well it's the steps rather than the ladder.
00:26Yeah. Even the investigation just said it's literally one of them things.
00:33Yeah, yeah, and so you're waiting for it to heal, you're on that process now and
00:39then the plan is back to work, same company and everything and carry on as
00:44is, but a bit of a lesson isn't it really, that this bypassing of doctors to
00:50write sick notes, it's kind of going externally from them now isn't it?
00:54Yeah, I can understand part of the reason, because there are people who
01:00are milking the system, but for people like myself, it's like a blank carpet,
01:08everybody's tied with the same brush regardless and the statute, the process
01:15they use, if you pass it, you're deemed fit regardless of anything else.
01:21So you were asked a number of questions, what sort of questions did they ask if you could do?
01:25What tasks? Can you dress yourself? I said yes I can put my clothes on,
01:32but I do need a hand from my wife, depending on my mobility at the time.
01:38Can you feed yourself? Yes I can feed myself, but I can't get my own food and I
01:44can't carry my own food. Can you put your hands above your head? Yes I can.
01:50Can you get up any steps? I can manage about two steps on my crutches.
01:57So the end of this question, it's basically a tick box thing isn't it?
02:02Someone on the other end of a system is ticking boxes on a form, that's how it's
02:05working. So their conclusion at the end of this was what?
02:09They literally found me fit to work. Fit to work, so when you said to them, well hang on,
02:16I have got a job and I'll be going back to the job when it's my foot sealed,
02:20what was their answer to that? Literally when the first question of it came up,
02:26the work coach said there is a probability that you will have to give
02:31up the job, take something in the meantime, because of the length of time
02:36that it will take you to heal up and get back to your normal job. So I said,
02:41does that mean I'll have to give up my job? He says possibly yes, because you
02:45will have to take other employment. Crazy, so you're a skilled electrician,
02:51you're happy where you're working, they're happy with you, they're just
02:54waiting for you to come back, but here you are being told you can rub
02:58your belly, you can touch your head, tick tick on the box and you must find a
03:03job suitable for you. I mean what was your thoughts?
03:08Well exactly, my company has been absolutely brilliant, fully supportive of me.
03:14They could quite easily have got rid of me, but they haven't, they're absolutely
03:20excellent, kept in touch all the way through. The doctors have been brilliant,
03:25looked after me and everything, until we get to this point and I've felt sick.
03:30It's caused arguments between me and my wife, we had a really bad weekend the
03:35other weekend between us. My wife's got mental issues and it's set her off,
03:42she's been touch and go, touch and go, because we're worried, we stand to lose
03:48everything if they sanction us because I won't find work, but I've got a job.
03:53You tell her I'm not under a GP, I'm under a consultant and it was literally
03:59like banging my head against the brick wall. And I guess this is just a lesson we're
04:05learning of this modern way of living aren't we, where it's less about
04:09one person meeting you and listening to you, it's more about computer systems and
04:14algorithms and box ticking isn't it really? It literally is just somebody
04:18asking a question off a sheet and then somebody else has not even gone into the
04:22ins and outs of the person, whether they're fit. My wife's also off sick,
04:27we don't claim when I'm working, we don't claim nothing for her, and yet
04:34as soon as we started they were on at her. She's not fit to work full stop, but
04:40people like my wife or even somebody who's terminally ill will pass a tick box
04:46and they become made and told if you don't work you will be sanctioned.
04:52And that is the attitude that I have had from somebody who you've on there
05:00and the work coach. So you've gone from a full cast to a half cast to a quarter cast,
05:06when is it you're hoping to be back at work now? I'm hoping to be back middle of
05:09July, end of July at the latest. Because I'm wanting to get out, sitting in here,
05:15I've got a load of work in the garden to get done, I've got a load of work around
05:21the house to get done and I just can't do it at the moment because I've been on
05:26crutches and I've listened to the doctors and I'm doing what the doctors
05:31have said because the injury was that bad. Well we wish you all the best
05:36getting up on your feet again and back to work. Thank you very much.