Long term investment needed to get disabled people into work
4th February 2008
Responding to recent comments aboutincapacity benefit (IB) made by government advisor David Freud, Employers'Forum on Disability (EFD) supports Freud's analysis that a long-term investmentis required to improve the employment rate of disabled people.
EFD also welcomes Freud's analysis that itis "economically rational" to pay companies that place an IB claimantinto a job that lasts at least three years, £62,000.
However, EFD reacts with caution overFreud's claims that less than a third of the 2.7 million people claiming IB arelegitimate when the government's own figures have quoted less than 0.5% of IBclaimants as being possibly fraudulent.
EFD would also question how right it is tofocus on the level of fraud, when what we really have is an inefficient labourmarket that does not make it easy for people with disabilities from gettinginto or staying in employment.
EFD has long recognised that the mainstreamlabour market is not able to deliver disabled people into the right vacancy atthe right time.
Employers from both the public and theprivate sector have invested in research to try and make it easier for them tonavigate recruitment systems and employ disabled people.
EFD has recently welcomed government plansto reform the way that IB claimants are assessed and looks forward to workingwith the government in the future.
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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.