The Work and Pensions Committee has today
published the Government response to
its report on the disability employment gap.
The Committee’s report, published in
July, urged DWP to make a renewed effort to break down
unacceptable barriers disabled people face in the labour market.
It called on the Government to re-adopt its previous target of
halving the disability employment gap and adopt a new target of
getting an additional 1.2 million disabled people into work by
2027.
It also concluded that DWP’s national programme for supporting
disabled people to find and stay in work was not working and
instead should be delivered at a local level, with the report
also critical of the department’s efforts to engage with disabled
people.
The Government’s response fails to commit to halving the
disability employment gap and rejects the adoption of a new
target, instead saying it will ‘seek to achieve the current goal,
to see a million more disabled people in work in the decade to
2027’ before setting a new goal.
A recommendation that more funding and powers be devolved to
groups of local authorities to set up their own versions of the
Work and Health Programme is also rejected. The response states
DWP is assessing the effectiveness of the programme before making
any decisions.
Rt Hon MP, Chair of the Work and
Pensions Committee, said: “Every day disabled
people, both in work and looking for jobs, come up against
barriers in the labour market that nobody who is simply trying to
earn a living should have to face. The Government’s unambitious
response to our report fails to instil any confidence that it is
serious about breaking these down any time
soon.
The failure by Ministers to commit to a more stretching
target to reduce the disability employment gap is symptomatic of
the Government’s lacklustre approach. A reliance on goals rather
than firm targets leaves the option open of moving the goal posts
when it comes to efforts to increase the number of disabled
people in work.
The DWP also talks of assessing the effectiveness of the Work
and Health Programme, when it is patently already clear that it
is not working for many disabled people. The Government must
acknowledge the ineffectiveness of this over-centralised model
and move towards enabling groups of local authorities to deliver
more personalised and flexible support locally.”
