Disabled people in employment: Part 1

Part 1: fact checking: have recent government schemes narrowed the disability employment gap?

Summary:

The UK government claims that it has achieved its target of getting one million more disabled people into employment by 2027. In the first of a two-part feature on supporting disabled people into employment, John Ballard does some fact checking.

The number of disabled people aged 16–64 in employment has risen by more than 1.3 million in five years, data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal¹. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says the figures ‘confirm the government has achieved a key ambition in its efforts [to] improve the lives of disabled people’². But is this claim justified, particularly given that the number of working-age disabled people in the population also grew by 1.8 million over the same five-year period? The UK government also made a commitment to narrow the gap between the employment rates of disabled and non-disabled people (‘the disability employment gap’)³, but has tangible progress been made? …

 

Dr John Ballard is editor of Occupational health [at Work]

Author: Ballard J

Tags disability

Occupational Health at Work October/November 2022 (vol. 19/3) pp25-33

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