More than half of disabled people out of work

More than half of disabled people out of work but just one in ten receiving support, say Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion in Fit for Purpose: Transforming employment support fordisabled people and those with health conditions published 3 July 2014.

‘Fit for Purpose’ has been supported by twenty-five organisations – ranging from national charities that work with and represent disabled people through to three quarters of the organisations delivering the Government’s Work Programme.

The research finds that of the 4.2 million people who are out of work and disabled, fewer than one in ten (380,000) are being supported through either the Work Programme or the Government’s specialist disability employment programme, ‘Work Choice’. In fact Work Choice supports each year just one in two hundred disabled people who are out of work.

Less than half of disabled people are in work (49 per cent) compared with three quarters of non-disabled people. This research finds that this gap has not closed in recent years, and that disabled people and those with health conditions are much more likely to be long-term unemployed and less likely to find work than non-disabled people.

There are 8.1 million disabled people aged 16-64. Of these, 4.2 million are out of work with 3.6 million having a ‘work limiting’ condition (Source: Labour Force Survey). We estimate that 373,000 disabled people or those with health conditions are on the Work Programme with 10,000 on Work Choice (Source: Inclusion estimates based on DWP statistics).

The twenty-five organisations that have supported this project are: A4e, Avanta, BASE, ESG, i2i, Ingeus, Interserve, intraining, Kennedy Scott, learndirect, Maximus, Prospects, PublicCo, Randstad, Reed, Remploy, RNIB, Seetec, Serco, Shaw Trust CDG, St Loye's Foundation, Salvation Army, Wheatsheaf Trust, Work Solutions and Working Links.