Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Not Addressed
We recommend that the Government adopt a target with two elements: closing the disability employment...
Recommendation
We recommend that the Government adopt a target with two elements: closing the disability employment gap and increasing the number of disabled people in work. It should re-adopt its previous target of halving the disability employment gap. Alongside this, it should adopt a new, more ambitious absolute target aimed at increasing the number of disabled people in work, as its current target is not sufficiently stretching. At today’s employment levels, halving the disability employment gap would mean that around 1.2 million more disabled people need to be in work (assuming that the number of non-disabled people in work stays roughly the same). The Government should adopt this as its absolute target, which it should aim to achieve by 2027. We were disappointed to find that the Green Paper on health and disability support does not make any reference to a new target. The Government must use its National Strategy for Disabled People to set out its plans to adopt—and achieve—a more ambitious target instead. (Paragraph 23) Disability employment gap 71
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response details existing ONS and DWP/DHSC data publications on employment outcomes for disabled people, including autism. It does not address the recommendation to adopt new or re-adopt previous specific disability employment targets, or to include such plans in the National Strategy for Disabled People.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government · verbatim extract
Not Addressed
There has been good progress in reducing the disability employment gap – it has closed by around 5 percentage points since 2013 (when the current way of measuring disability began). Having clear goals to reduce the disability employment gap and increase the number of disabled people in employment provides a fuller picture of progress than a single goal. We have committed to publishing annual statistical updates on disability employment, which cover the gap and wider trends. The next statistical update will be published shortly in November 2021. It is worth noting that the Government has goals for disability employment and not targets. This is because external factors such as the size of the underlying disabled population and overall labour market performance will have an impact on disability employment, as well as interventions both from within and outside of Government. Setting a goal of seeing 1.2 million more disabled people in work over the next 5 years is very unlikely to halve the gap. This is because, based on past trends, the size of the disabled population will also increase during this time. An increase of 1.2 million disabled people in work would result in an estimated reduction in the gap of around 5 percentage points. We will seek to achieve the current goal, to see a million more disabled people in work in the decade to 2027 or ahead of the date given the good progress so far. As and when we achieve that, we will consider a further ambitious goal. Measuring disability employment Data collation
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