Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Paragraph: 22
There is broad support for the premise that the Government should have a target for...
Recommendation
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.
Paragraph Reference:
22
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government collects, and monitors, a number of different indicators when monitoring disability employment. Throughout this, we need to remember that we are focused on disabled people and that the data is a means to understand trends in employment, the disability employment rate, the disability unemployment rate, the disability economic inactivity rate and the disability employment gap. A08: Labour market status of disabled people - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) Annual statistics published by DWP/DHSC explore this data in more depth looking at employment outcomes, for both disabled and non-disabled people, across a number of different characteristics (such as age, gender, health condition, occupation, geography). The statistics also include information on movements in and out of work, again for both disabled and non-disabled people. The employment of disabled people 2019 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) We also look at a range of other data and evidence published both within and outside of Government. For example, data published by the ONS on disability pay gaps and job quality indicators (disabled and non-disabled). Disability pay gaps in the UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) Job quality indicators in the UK – hours, pay and contracts - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) Throughout the (COVID-19) pandemic we have used data to assess the impact on disabled people such as: • which people are most likely to be temporarily away from paid work during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. People temporarily away from paid work in the UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) • how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic impacted on redundancies using the UK labour market statistics for the period September to November 2020. Coronavirus and redundancies in the UK labour market - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) Our current preferred method of measuring the disability employment gap is well understood and is used widely both within and outside of Government, including by the ONS and Scope. As the National Disability Strategy set out, we are committed to improving the availability, quality, relevance, and comparability of Government disability data.