The UK Government will struggle to achieve an 80 per cent
employment rate unless it further incentivises firms to employ
disabled workers – via return-to-work recruitment incentives and
a new Right to Reintegration – according to new research
published today (Thursday) by the Resolution Foundation.
The report Opening Doors notes that while the headline
employment rate for disabled people has risen from 44 to 54 per
cent between 2014 and 2025, new analysis reveals that when
accounting for the rising prevalence of disability among the
working-age population, disability-related labour market
exclusion has actually deteriorated. A prevalence-adjusted
measure of the disability employment gap sees it rising from 5.4
per cent in 2013 to 6.8 per cent in 2023.
With the incidence of disability likely to continue increasing as
the country ages and ails, growing employment among disabled
people will be vital to meeting any employment targets. Halving
the disability employment gap would take the Government more than
halfway towards meeting its 80 per cent employment rate target.
To date, policy debates have centred on how the welfare system
can encourage disabled people into work. But this narrow focus
neglects the crucial role employer practices can play in
reducing the systemic barriers that disabled people face to
finding work. The authors propose practical improvements to
recruitment, reimbursement, and reintegration to address these
barriers.
The Foundation recommends that return-to-work
recruitment incentives should be introduced to
encourage employers to hire new staff with disabilities,
especially those who have been out of work for six months or
more. These incentives could be delivered either by subsidising
employers who take on a new employee previously in receipt of
welfare, or by creating a disability employment levy based on the
design of the apprenticeship levy.
Although the cost of Access to Work – which supports disabled
people into work by reimbursing employers for
the cost of reasonable adjustments – has increased by four-fifths
over the past decade, the report notes that cutting spending for
the impactful scheme would be an own goal. It should instead be
strengthened by increasing clarity for employers and improving
the user experience for workers.
Reintegration has the greatest potential to
transform disabled employment in the UK. Just as recent decades
have seen a transformation in the way mothers are treated in the
labour market – with a statutory right to return to their jobs
after a period of leave – it's time to rethink how we support
people who temporarily stop working due to sickness, say the
authors.
The Foundation notes that it is still too easy for employers to
let disabled people go after periods of incapacity. Once that
link is broken, it is far harder for individuals to find
employment.
To address this, the report calls for a new Right to
Reintegration for workers on sick leave. This would oblige
employers to demonstrate that they have made sufficient
reintegration efforts to bring the worker back into their role
before they have the option of dismissing them. If the UK were to
achieve comparable success with similar measures in the
Netherlands, this could lead to incapacity benefit on-flows
falling by two-thirds.
Professor Ben Baumberg Geiger, a Research Associate at
the Resolution Foundation, said:
“The Government has, rightly, set an ambitious target of 80 per
cent employment. But it will fail to get anywhere close to this
unless it tackles the huge employment gap faced by disabled
people.
“While some metrics – that don't account for the increased
incidence of disability – seem to show a decreased employment gap
for disabled people, prevalence-adjusted measures show that
disabled people's labour market inclusion has in fact been
getting worse in recent years.
“Supporting this group into work will be a vital part of getting
Britain working. Halving the disability employment gap would take
the Government more than halfway towards meeting its 80 per cent
employment rate target.
Louise Murphy, Senior Economist at the Resolution
Foundation, said:
“Much of the debate around supporting disabled people into work
has centred on reforming benefits to incentivise employment. But
while important, this has neglected an even more central issue –
the role of employers in helping more disabled workers to join,
remain and thrive in the workplace.
“The Government should do more to incentivise firms to employ
disabled people, especially those who have been out of work for
long periods. But employers need to do more in return. A new
Right to Reintegration could help disabled workers back into work
in the same way that maternity rights transformed women's
employment prospects a generation ago.”
Notes to editors
- Copies of Opening doors by Ben Baumberg Geiger and
Louise Murphy are available from the press office. For more
information contact Emma Beale on 07769695494.
- Ben Baumberg Geiger is a Professor in Social Science and
Health in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at
King's College London, and is co-authoring this report in his
capacity as a Research Associate at the Resolution Foundation
