I'm dubious about the whole "A-Levels are harder" argument. I did 'em a long time ago, so maybe my memory ain't too reliable, but my recollection is that I didn't put much work in and still managed to scrape two A-Levels, including a 'B' grade for English. I've worked really hard on my Access course, which has led to much better results, but I feel even to have just cruised through the course getting passes I'd have been doing more work than I did for my A-Levels - I think Access demands it of you since it's condensing it all into 9 months. Draw what conclusions you want from that, but I'd simply say that if you're coping with the Access course fairly well, you're probably equal to the challenges of uni (disclaimer: I'm not at uni yet, so I can't give first-hand testimony on the challenges of a degree workload).
It sounds like writing essays isn't your forte, but perhaps if you like logic you'd be better at a subject like Maths or Computer Science (my perception is they're not particularly essay-oriented, but I could be wrong). Access entails battling through subjects that aren't necessarily what you like or are good at, but hopefully you can focus more on what you like and you're good at while at uni.
Re. your question about getting a job, your idea of a decent job and mine might vary, so I don't think I can say much on that one (without specifics). It's an issue I'll be facing in 3-4 years time too, but in the meantime I'm operating on the principle that the (hopefully) degree-qualified me doing that will be better equipped to face the challenge than the lesser-qualified me would be.