CP Woman, 35, ‘Humiliated’ After Wetting Herself When Mitcham JobCentre Refused Her Use Of Toilet
A woman with cerebral palsy who suffers from a weak bladder has told of her humiliation after she wet herself in front of a room full of people when she said Jobcentre staff refused to let her use the toilet.
The incident took place when Rebecca Weston, 35, was called to the Jobcentre in London Road, Mitcham, to review her benefits.
A Jobcentre spokeswoman said it did not have public toilets and an alternative was offered to Ms Weston at the time.
Ms Weston, from the Pollards Hill Estate, said: “When I went in there I requested to use the toilet and explained to him, ‘please let me because if you don’t I’m going to wet myself.’
“‘Well, that’s not my problem.’ he said to me. I’m standing in the middle of the job centre, 35 years-old, and I wet myself in front of a room full of people. I have never been so frustrated and humiliated.”
The Jobcentre does not have a public toilet, but Ms Weston wants to see the centre make exceptions for disabled people after the incident on September 29.
A staff member advised her to use the toilet in a cafe down the road, but she warned them it might be too late and wet herself as she headed towards the exit.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions, which manages the Jobcentre Plus offices, said: “Jobcentres don’t have public toilets, but our staff will always try to accommodate people’s individual needs where possible.
“However people should also be aware that we do not tolerate abusive behaviour towards our staff.”
Ms Weston, who receives employment and support allowance, said she only used an expletive after the incident when the staff member continued to be unsympathetic.
She said: “I think it’s totally disgusting to humiliate disabled people in that way. I don’t claim benefits because I want to. I think people need to know about this.”
Reblogged this on nearlydead.
sadly they mostly bullies and the reply A Jobcentre spokeswoman said it did not have public toilets and an alternative was offered to Ms Weston at the time.
you bet they didnt laughing at her disstress most probaly yet how can they live with them selves but hope that whot goes around comes back quickly and bites their backside jeff3
Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
I found this to be an issue for me when I recently used a job centre too.
Most job centres have plods as the main link for customer service these days. I asked a plod first. He told me to ask someone else and that someone else asked me to ask someone else. The final person I asked was a woman. I had no problems with this but being a male myself I recognised that culturally some people would find this difficult.
There’s also an issue about how long you are expected to stay in a job centre these days. If you are just signing on you may get into a queue, if you are on a course or using the computers to look for work you could be there for hours.
In the circumstances that toilets are not available to the public is inhumane and reflects on the cruelty and the stupidity of the DWP/job centres
Thank you for sharing this story. I would advise a change in the title to read “Woman With CP…” as the other way around would be considered Ableist. 🙂 All the best!