The Equality Act of 2010 in Action - Essay Example

Disability [Name] [Institutional Affiliation] [Date] Table of Contents 1.0. Introduction 3 2.0 Statistical Discussion 3 2.1 General Demographics 3 2.2 Living Standard 4 3.0 Literature review 5 3.1 Disability, Skills, and Employment 5 3.2 Poverty and the Disability 7 3.3 Understanding People with Disabilities 9 4.0 Legal Discussion 11 5.0. Conclusion 12 References 13 1.0. Introduction The Equality Act of 2010 was constituted in a bid to safeguard the interests of diverse individuals. The Act outlines nine characteristics that it intends to protect. They include; disability, race, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, age, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity and religion or belief. The Equality act defines every characteristic and goes ahead to expound on how the law protects the individuals exhibiting the aforementioned characteristics. This law is cognisant of the historical inequalities that have existed over time and potential areas that are likely to breed social, economic, and political inequality in the society. The purpose of this essay is to examine the extent to which the law protects the individuals with disability in the UK. It first begins by discussing the statistical information available on disability in the UK. In order to give insight into the topic, the essay shall examine the literature available on the topic. The essay further critically analyses legislation with regard to the selected group for this discussion. 2.0 Statistical Discussion 2.1 General Demographics Each year the government of UK, through the Office for Disabilities, carries out research on issues pertaining to disability (Jones & Jones 2008). It was noted that close to eleven million people in the Great Britain live with an impairment, disability or a long term illness that limits them from doing their day-to-day activities. Majority of the people with impairment are reportedly suffering from issues to do with their mobility, carrying or lifting. There is general trend of the disability prevalence. Disability prevalence rate rises with age differences. Adults above the state pension age are the most affected by disability with a prevalence rate of 45%. Those working come second with 16% while it is in children only 6% of them that were identified as disabled in the same survey of 2011/12 (Jones & Jones 2008). According to this survey most children who are disabled in the Great Britain are born disabled. The high disability rate among the retirees is attributed to the age factor and susceptibility to getting hearing impairment or terminal diseases that limit them from living ordinary lives. 2.2 Living Standard The living standards of people living with disabilities or families with a disabled member are largely far below those without disabilities. The same research by Family Resource Survey of 2011/12 indicates that at least 19% of the people living with a member or two who are disabling thrive in relative income poverty (Jones & Jones 2008). Thus, it has been concluded that disability is one cause of poverty in the UK for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is the fact that the disabled members often rely on the working members for their sustenance since they cannot work at all. Even for those who work, there are myriad challenges that face them, chief among them being poor working conditions, pay and terms of work. In addition to this, families with disabled members use a lot money in treatment and taking care of the disabled member. Due to such economic strains, their children might fail to access better education that will guarantee them a better future (Dhungana 2006). As Family Resource Survey found out in the 2011/12 survey, the percentage of children who live in poverty is high in families with a disabled member than those without. It is 16% of children who do not have a disabled member of the family and who live in poverty. Thus, a close connection is established with regard to the living standard of people in the UK. 3.0 Literature review This literature reviews various works that have been done regarding the disabled under various categories as shown below. They include; Disability, skills and Employment, Poverty and Disability and Understanding people with disability. The goal of this area is to unearth the practices of laws that pertain to disability and general public practice in relation to matters of disability. Relevant literature has been given with illustration from the UK and the world at large. 3.1 Disability, Skills, and Employment In the UK, disabled people are less active economically and have lower rates of employment. With the coming up the Equality Act of 2010 there has been a tremendous improvement of the employment rates among the disabled in the past few years. To start with there is considerable improvement on the access rate to education and retention rate. Given the Disabled Student Allowance, most disabled students who join school do not drop out of school because of this assistance. They are formally taught and trained just like the non-disabled students. They end up completing their degrees and acquiring necessary skills and attitudes that are needed in the job market (Riddell, Banks & Tinklin, 2005a).The competencies that the disabled acquire are similar to the ones that the non-disabled people take. Regardless of the training, there are remarkable differences when it comes to the outcome of these students in the labour market depending on the level of their impairment (Hoogeven 2005). In the UK, studies have indicated remarkable differences in the rates of employment among the different disability levels. Disabled people exhibiting mental challenges or difficulties or those with a disability that hinders their mobility indicate the lowest employment rates in the whole of the UK. To add insult to injury; the few who make it to the work place have challenges accessing better terms and other benefits. In other parts of the world, there is stigma that is associated with such people and this continuously derails them from exploiting their full potential. There are major concerns for the disabled graduates who have no qualifications at all. This particular group has been cited to have great difficulties in the labour market. The situation has worsened since 1974 to 2003. There are other factors that come into play concerning employment rates among the disabled students. They include gender and social class. Majority of the disabled students from middle-class backgrounds are male. Gender and disability issues intersect. A disabled student can be disadvantaged at two levels: on gender basis and disability (Hoogeven 2005). The economic recession of 2007 adversely affected the disabled people in the UK. There were losses of jobs that cut across on both the disabled and non-disabled. In addition to this, there were less and less funds that were injected to aid the disabled members. In the research carried out by the Government Equalities Office (2009), it was concluded that the disabled had been greatly affected and that there was need for an affirmative action to be done. In the year 2009, the UK ratified the UN convention on the Rights of persons with Disabilities and the sister protocol that permits individuals to raise complaints. This particular convention treats areas of life in addition to employment and skills. It caters for necessary judicial processes that can be followed if people believe that their rights have been breached (O’Reilly 2003).The Convention further categorises the various types of disabilities and goes ahead to explain how each law applies to the various categories of disabilities. Riddell et al. (2005) noted that in response to the requirements of the UN convention of 2009, some employers had failed to make the workplace conducive for the disabled. Making the world place conducive for the disabled entails putting in place adjustments that permit employees to execute their work with ease. Legislation of this cadre has diverse positive effects like improving recruiting, promotion, transfers, development, and training. As Jones and Jones (2008) notes, there was significant improvement in the US following implementation of a similar piece of legislation. Acquiring skills and training for the disabled is not an incentive enough to make them work fully and productively. Other factors like the working conditions and the nature of work can hinder or promote their ability to execute their functions. They need a supportive environment. An environment that takes their needs into consideration. For instance, the nature of work, equipments, and tools used for doing work by the disabled and the workload must be examined. In addition to this, they also need incentives that will enable them work better and stay motivated. Stafford (2005) noted that flexibility on the benefits system would serve as an important incentive to the disabled. Flexibility of such systems affected the ability of disabled to work either on full-time or part-time basis. Most disabled employees are more motivated by flexible benefits and would be willing to work either full-time or part-time. Few employees are likely to risk continuing to work knowing that their benefits are to be withdrawn if they can’t sustain the work. 3.2 Poverty and the Disability There is a close connection between poverty and disability. However, this connection has been otherwise been stated as complex and nuance by some researchers (Groce et al. 2011).The connection between poverty and disability is so strong and for a long time now it has been an issue of concern among international bodies and other international health communities. Other scholars like Zimmer (2009) have raised questionable arguments by suggesting that disability is caused by poverty and that it the consequence of the latter. The complexity of this link between poverty and disability makes it hard to state clearly how poverty causes disability. What is clear though is that disability can cause poverty among the populations. Economists define poverty as lack of income. Other policy makers have defined poverty as the state of life where the individual lives below the poverty line. The state of being poor has diverse effects on disability. Firstly; access to medical care can be hampered by poverty. Disabled individuals from poor families might not be able to meet the cost of medical services. Worse still, the cost of maintaining a disabled member in the family might be high. Countries with high poverty levels the levels of disability are high too. This factor is attributed to the fact that most people do not have access to medical services. Disabilities that can be rectified or prevented are left to aggravate. It is important to note that disability can be a source of poverty in a family. In middle and low income families the cost of treating and managing disabilities can be drain the families’ finances. Some disorders require intensive treatment that families from these backgrounds cannot afford. Thus; they end spending all their income on treatment and leave other areas of their life like education. As indicated earlier, access to education by non-disabled children coming from a family with a disabled member can be hindered because of poverty (Stafford 2005). Despite the fact that participation in social family and political life has economic implications in some parts of the world such participation is hindered. Inability to get life partners through marriage curtails one’s development socially and consequently derailing their economic development. Note that marriage is way of upward mobility in some cases. In Uganda this situation is dire as people with disabilities have limited chances of ever getting married (Hoogeven, 2005).In sub-Saharan Africa, majority of the women who have disabilities especially epilepsy are limited from leading their normal lives because of stigma (Dhungana, 2006). 3.3 Understanding People with Disabilities The act of coming of up with laws to protect the disabled in the society is ideal. However, in studies conducted there has been a growing concern to educate the non-disabled communities about disabilities and how to relate with such individuals. While laws might enable the disabled access their rights they may not necessarily help to change the stigma and ill-thought mentalities about the disabled. People with mental illnesses or difficulties in learning are presented as people with the myriad preferences and needs. To be able to meet the needs of this category of people one has to understand them first. Across all states, there is an increasing trend of putting in place special needs’ schools that cater for the needs of learners with disabilities. Psychiatric help is important in helping members of the family discern the form of mental illness and modalities of interacting with such people. Good practices in this regard entail being able to deliver an approach that is personalised ,and built on the basis of needs of the individual. Individuals ought to understand the complexity of the factors that are influenced by mental illness. Effects of mental illness touch on both the mental and physical spheres of life, leisure, housing, and social networks (Zimmer 2008). People with disabilities, especially those with adverse mental conditions and the old people are inclined to experience loneliness due to exclusion from the society. In addition to this, they are faced with quite a number of hindrances that present significant barriers to acquisition of benefits. On the other hand, those with learning disabilities have trouble making friends. In a classroom situation they are susceptible to being labelled “damn” and being made a laughing stock. In this situation the teacher and the learners ought to know how to relate with such people without necessarily drawing boundaries and making them a laughing stock (Zimmer 2008). Conditions like dementia often pass undiagnosed, thus making it less likely to be detected. These persons are likely to miss their benefits to which they are entitled. One of the ways that can be used to help the non-disabled understand the disabled is by advocacy. Advocacy has been identified as a key method in helping create awareness on the rights of the disabled and what role the non-disabled can play in order to help them live comfortably in the society. For instance, advocacy can help create awareness of the barriers that the vulnerable communities encounter in their quest for justice. One chief barrier is lack of awareness. Some disabled people are not aware of their legibility for the available benefits. This is attributed to the lack of formal ways of informing such people of their constitutional rights. As a result, they are easily taken advantage of in this regard or forgotten. The next barrier relates to access of benefits. The communication channels selected do not meet the preferences and needs of some sections of the disabled like the mentally challenged. The third barrier is the complex application. Some customers have said that claiming for the benefits is a long and complex process that is often marred with hindrances especially for those with mental disabilities. Bias has also been reported among people with various groups of disabilities (Stafford 2005). There is remarkable concern among civic groups that people need to be educated on how to handle people with various disabilities. This should start from the family members involved in care of persons with disabilities. They need to get an insight into the form of disability affecting that particular individual and the way in which they can effectively take care of that particular person. On other hand, the community must be educated on the various forms of disability and how to integrate members of the society who are disabled. 4.0 Legal Discussion The Equality Act classifies persons with disability as people who need to be protected. According to the Equality Act 2010, an individual with disability is defined as a person who has a mental impairment or physical impairment. The Act further goes ahead to state that such an impairment is of the nature that it continues to hinder the individual’s ability to carry out their normal day-to-day activities. The other synonym of a person with disability is “disabled”. The Act clearly defines a person who has disability and goes ahead to give a framework for deciding whether a person has disability or not. For instance. a man who work in a construction site, lifting heavy bags of cement. He later develops a condition that inhibits him from carrying heavy loads at work and home. The act of carrying heavy loads constitutes part of his daily activities but not his normal daily activities like jogging or carrying lighter objects in the house. If such a person fails to carry out the latter he can be termed as disabled. The provision of the Act provides for protection from any form of discrimination for people with any form of disability. It thus prohibits discrimination against any person because of their disability situation or something that is in consequence of their disability. However, this very legislation has been faulted for a reason. A person can justify an act of discrimination if they prove to the court that the treatment to a disabled person was proportionate in helping them achieve a legitimate goal. Given that a legitimate aim is not properly defined and that it is wide, there are chances that the latter can be abused and misinterpreted by malicious individuals. For instance, an employee can justify sacking an employee who loses his sight in the course of executing his functions on the basis that that constitutes a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate goal (Stafford 2005). The Act further endeavours to protect an individual from associative discrimination. In this particular instance, the non-disabled are protected from discrimination as a result of being associated with people with disabilities. As shown in the case of Macdonald -v- Flyde Motor Company Ltd (2011 EqLR 660) where the claimant was fired for refusing to work at a time when he was supposed to look after his disabled sister. In the case the jury upheld that it was unlawful for the employee to deny his worker permission to take care of his sister who was disabled. This law has seen a lot improvement with regard to how the disabled are handled in the society. 5.0. Conclusion In conclusion the essay has discussed the extent to which the law protects the individuals with disability in the UK. It first begins by discussing the statistical information available on disability in the UK. In order to give insight into the topic the essay examines the literature available on the topic. The areas discussed in the literature review include; disability and poverty, understanding people with disability and disability, skills and employment. The various sub-headings have been used to examine different works that have been researched on disability. The essay further critically analyses legislation with regard to the selected group for this discussion. In this section it was established that the law effectively defines who is a person with disability. It further outlines how the Act protects such individuals with a few examples from some cases in the UK. However, there are considerable flaws in the Act that can be examined and rectified to make the law more effective. References Dhungana, B. M. (2006). The lives of disabled women in Nepal: vulnerability without support. Disability &Society, 21(2), 133-146. Groce, N., Kett,M., Lang, R., Trani, JF.. (2011) Disability and Poverty: The Need for a more Nuanced Understanding of the Implications for Development Policy and Practice. Third World Quarterly. (inpress) Jones, M. K. & Jones, J. (2008) The labour market impact of the UK Disability Discrimination Act: evidence from the repeal of the small firm exemption. Bulletin of Economic Research, 60, 3: 289-378. Hoogeven, J. (2005). Measuring welfare for small but vulnerable groups: Poverty and disability in Uganda.J Afr Econ, 14, 603-631. Riddell, S., Banks, P. & Tinklin, T. (2005a). Disability and employment in Scotland: a review of the evidence base. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive Social Research. O’Reilly, A. (2003) The right to decent work of persons with disabilities.Working paper. Geneva: International Labour Office. Stafford, B. (2005) ‘New Deal for Disabled People: what’s new about New Deal?’ in Roulstone, A. and Barnes, C. (eds.) Working Futures? Disabled People, Policy and Social Inclusion. Bristol: Policy Press. Zimmer Z. (2008). Poverty, wealth inequality and health among older adults in rural Cambodia. Soc SciMed. 2008 Jan;66(1):57-71 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/6: Retrieved from: 4/20/2015 Case of Macdonald -v- Flyde Motor Company Ltd (2011 EqLR 660) Read More