We accept, or at least I hope we do, that opening a bank account is a right and should be quite straight forward; at least that is what we are led to believe. So why is it that when a person who has a learning disability tries to open an account or are supported to do so, they encounter so many obsticles, the biggest one being other people's negative attitude.

You are told that they cannot open an account without a driver's liscence, passport or a utility bill with your name on it. It is assumed that everyone drives, has a passport and has utility bills coming to them in their name. When this is brought to the bank's staff attention, the response you get can range from a shoulder shrug to I am sorry I cannot help you. The Banking Authority have a list of alternative documents which will be acceptable for opening an account so why is it that staff in some banks are not aware of this? At best it is annoying, at worst it is a clear breech of someone's rights. Either way it is totaly unacceptable and indicates a gap in information and training.

 What is even worse is the attitude towards people with disabilities by some banking staff. I recall one incident where I was supporting someone to open an account, we were not getting very far and at the end we decided to leave and try another bank. As we left my friend offered a hanshake to the person who was not helping us, only to have his gesture declined by her leaning right back away from him. Is this something staff working on the information desk are trained to do or is this response reserved only for people who have a learning disability? After several attempts our friend was able to open an account.

Interestingly the same service user a few wee ks later, was refused a hair cut in a hair dressers on the grounds that a number of people they had booked were due to arrive to fill all 7 empty chairsWhen asked when they could be seen, the reply was next Monday. Today was Thursday. They clearly had no intention of serving the gentleman. Less than anhour later after he had a hair cut from another hair dresser close by, they passed by the first hairdresser on their way back and as they looked in guess what they saw? The 7 chairs were still empty. When this was reported to me, I immediately reported this to the local authority's Equalities Unit.

We have come a long way but experinces like this shows us that we have so much further still to go.

 Hi Brain

Did these incidents happen recently?

Simeon 

Actually you don't have to look very far to see that adults with learning disabilities are treated differently. For instance this week 'somewhere' within an authority a job is advertised and is 'reserved for someone with a learning disability' wow! thats good of them! Then you look at the scale of pay and notice that other office clerks jobs and all others advertised are a band 2 and this one is a band 1. Why can't it be the same band as the other clerk workers? Maybe the other workers would not like it? I know they would have their excuses but it just does not feel right.

About 18 months ago Simeon

 That's terrible - reading your post it sounded like those things must have happened several years ago. I'd assumed attitudes had gradually been improving

Maybe we are just lucky but I havent experienced that type of negative behaviuor towards a service user in banks.Locally I have always found them to be respectful although most are a bit strict regarding proof of ID (for all bank users)   I do recall supporting someone to buy flooring and when their choice wasnt available the shop manager and his assistant thought they would just give him a different flooring stating." he doesnt know the difference". Fortunately my colleague was very quick to point out that we knew the difference and briefly discussed other flooring specialists in the area which seemed to jolt the shop manager back to reality. It was quite embarrassing to have to defend the individual in public but I have actually found some social services staff to be the worse culprits for denying choice and respect using the shop managers words of " he doesnt know the difference".

Spending years working in a bank prior to my social work degree - I have never had a complaint from people with disabilities being treated unfairly - so this makes me think your experience was due to particular person who you saw rather than the banks procedures.

 Whilst working there in the head office - they were a lot of disabled collegaues - one of them was a senior managr - also I had a breakdown and, looking back, they were supportive and understanding - I still got a good pay rise two years after.

 However, what annoyed me slightly was if a customer couldn't pay their account due to personal reasons - we did not have to enquire what these personal reasons were and could still freeze their interest, however if a customer said it was due to mental illnesses - we would not do anything with that account until we received evidence from the drs or hospitals.