For this group, employment rates are low; deep-rooted social barriers prevent many from getting work. Such barriers have been exacerbated by the recession, which left a shrinking economy, and an increasingly competitive labour market saturated with applicants.
Enter the Conservative-led Coalition. Pledging to “increase the incentive to work, and reduce the incentives to stay out of work”, the new government immediately announced an extreme upheaval of the disability benefits system. Previous plans to transfer Incapacity Benefit claimants to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) were sped up; pilots were introduced in Aberdeen and Burnley. Welfare-to-work schemes for disabled people, like Pathways to Work, were scrapped – replaced by a single, overarching ‘Work Programme’.
The Government has been vocal in expressing its wish to protect disabled people, while enabling more to “enjoy the advantages that an active working life can bring”. These are admirable aims. And yet, much of the government’s push to move disabled people off benefits and into work is driven not by evidence of what works, but by an unflinching focus on the benefits pot as the most accessible, and most politically palatable, source of major Government savings.
My constituents have filled my postbag and email account with messages of serious concern about the Government’s plans, most particularly about changes to Disability Living Allowance (DLA). Some have told me about their individual circumstances and their worries about how the changes will restrict their daily life, all have expressed their frustration at the fact that the most vulnerable in our society feel they are being targeted by the Government. They seem to me to have been given good cause.
Take plans to accelerate the transfer of people from IB to ESA and Jobseekers Allowance (JSA). These were announced and piloted despite evidence that the test used to determine ‘fitness for work’ – the Work Capability Assessment – is not fit for purpose. The Citizens Advice Bureau concluded the WCA “does not effectively measure fitness for work”; the Harrington Review said it was ‘impersonal’, ‘mechanistic’ and lacked clarity. Meanwhile, policy analysts warned that JSA does not provide enough tailored support to disabled people, and leaves them vulnerable to unfair, punitive and counter-productive sanctions. Should a disabled person be deemed to have left their job ‘voluntarily’ because of discrimination (rife amongst working disabled people) or, if inaccessible public transport stops them meeting their Jobcentre adviser at short-notice, should their benefits be docked through no fault of their own?
The gap in employment rates between disabled and non-disabled people has remained obstinately wide and -even in periods of full employment – schemes like Pathways to Work failed to reach those furthest from the labour market. Now, there are concerns that scrapping specialist schemes for disabled people, and paying by results, will persuade providers to help only those closest to the job market and abandon those further away.
The Coalition remains fixated on cutting the deficit, prioritising quick win reductions in unemployment over sustainable job outcomes. Yet, there are greater financial rewards to be gained from thinking more creatively as to how to create new jobs and more flexible ways of working; how to better empower disabled people to broaden their skills base, build their capabilities and move into secure employment. That is what we need to do.