Select committee: Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 2
Second Report - Disability employment gap
Published 30 Jul 2021
Paragraph 22
Addressed to Department for Work and Pensions
Work and Pensions Committee Disability employment gap All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
There is broad support for the premise that the Government should have a target for improving disabled people’s employment rates. Views about what that target should be, however, differ. Both absolute and relative targets have drawbacks. Although the overall number of disabled people in work has increased since 2013, this is largely because of factors such as overall improvements to the labour market, which have also affected non-disabled people, and an increase in the prevalence of disability. It does not appear to be as a result of substantial progress in addressing the specific barriers that disabled people face to finding and staying in work. A relative measure, on the other hand, provides a clearer picture of disabled people’s experiences of the labour market compared to their non-disabled counterparts, but reducing the gap is not necessarily a sign that more disabled people are in work: it could be that the number of non-disabled people in work has decreased. To be meaningful and effective, the target needs to combine both absolute and relative elements, to benefit from the advantages of both and to mitigate their disadvantages.
From: Work and Pensions Committee, Second Report - Disability employment gap (HC 189), paragraph 22, 30 July 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 22 November 2021 (deadline 30 September 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it shares the Committee's aim and is progressing its reforms, but keeps its existing goal of one million more disabled people in work by 2027 rather than adopting the Committee's proposed targets.
- On targets, it says it has "goals" rather than targets, because external factors affect disability employment, and that a 1.2 million goal is "very unlikely to halve the gap".
- On workforce reporting by large employers, it points to a Cabinet Office consultation, exploring "both voluntary and mandated workplace transparency", as "the right next step".
- On Disability Confident, it will review levels 2 and 3 and "consider" how to measure the scheme's impact and success, and says the review will provide an opportunity to seek views on external assessment.
- On the Work Capability Assessment, it says detailed proposals will be set out in a White Paper in 2022 following analysis of Green Paper responses.