More job retention support for disabled needed

Summary

In 2004, of the 6.7 million disabled people of working age in Britain, 50 per cent were in employment compared to 75 per cent of the working age population as a whole.

Barriers preventing many disabled people from taking up a job include employer attitudes and misconceptions, lack of awareness of support available, health conditions, local labour market factors and a lack of adjustments to work premises.

This Report from the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, ‘Gaining and Retaining a Job: The Department for Work and Pensions' Support for Disabled People’ (HC 112), examines the quality and cost-effectiveness of the specialist programmes and schemes provided by the Department of Work and Pensions, and the performance of Remploy.

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Law-Making Explained

This is a House of Commons Paper (HC 112): it is a report from the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts.

Find out more about House of Commons Papers.

How does it affect me?

If you are an employer, employee or work in the sector of disability rights, this affects you.

Findings include:

There is a need to rationalise the current provision in order to develop more flexible support services, which better reflect the varied circumstances of disabled people
The quality of service varies considerably across the country and more emphasis needs to be placed on job retention activities to help disabled people stay in work
Poor management information makes it difficult to determine whether programmes deliver value for money.

The current review of Remploy should consider the unique circumstances facing the business and must safeguard its achievements, particularly the work of Remploy Interwork in placing disabled people with mainstream employers.

Find out more about Remploy.

See the most recent Department for Work and Pensions consultations.