The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is currently consulting on 'Improving specialist disability employment services'. According to the consultation document, "the overall employment rate for disabled people has improved significantly over the past decade – from just 38% in 1998 to around 47% today".
As the Shaw Trust highlights "only about half of disabled people of working age are in work, compared with 80% of non disabled people of working age". Their website also contains comparative employment statistics by disability.
The consultation looks at the nature of provision that the DWP offers to disabled people seeking work, and asks how this provision can be improved. But both the Citizens Advice Bureau and the PCS union (representing staff who work in Jobcentre Plus) question whether improvements can be made at a time when the DWP is cutting a further 12,000 staff – having cut 30,000 over the past three years.
Improving this specialist provision to these services is part of the DWP's proposed reforms of Incapacity Benefit, which aims to remove one million people from Incapacity Benefit. These proposals have been criticised by unions, and disability charities.
The consultation document Improving specialist disability employment services can be downloaded from the DWP website. The deadline for responses is Monday 10th March 2008.
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