Disabled people disadvantaged in labour market by Government work schemes
17th January 2007
Employers' Forum on Disability (EFD) welcomes the Public Accounts Committee's report which highlights that efforts to get disabled people into work are hindered by overlapping Government work schemes.
EFD is aware that the system designed to help disabled people's prospects for real employment is often uncoordinated and confusing to both disabled people and employers alike.
Employers' Forum on Disability chief executive Susan Scott-Parker says: "Government should create an efficient labour market where the system works to bring disabled people and employers together in the right job match.
"Streamlining services which help disabled people to find training and jobs, combined with building disability confidence across the entire work related system, will see improvements for all concerned.
"Government would have more success in implementing their welfare to work agenda by talking to the private sector, which has had experience of supply chain management.
"Furthermore, if the agencies which are there to help disabled people find employment get it right on disability then other disadvantaged groups such as single parents and ethnic minorities will also benefit, driving the Government's larger inclusion agenda."
The Public Accounts Committee's report, released on 16 January, said that of more than one million on incapacity benefit who want to work, only 160,000 take advantage of state schemes.
The committee also claimed "unreliable" data from the Department of Work and Pensions made it "impossible" to assess the benefits of the £320m being spent.
The full report Public Accounts Committee report, ‘Gaining and retaining a job: the Department for Work and Pensions' support for disabled people' can be found here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmpubacc.htm
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Notes to editors
Media enquiries, please contact:
Liz Nightingale, Communications Manager
Employers' Forum on Disability
Email: liz.nightingale@efd.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7403 3020
About Employers' Forum on Disability
Employers' Forum on Disability is the employers' organisation focused on disability as it affects employers and service providers. With over 400 members, EFD represents organisations that employ around 20 per cent of the UK workforce.Since its establishment in 1991, EFD has worked closely with government and other stakeholders, sharing best practice to make it easier to employ disabled people and serve disabled customers.