Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Not Addressed
Paragraph: 24
In isolation, however, even the measures underlying this target do not give a full picture...
Recommendation
In isolation, however, even the measures underlying this target do not give a full picture of the Government’s progress on disability employment or disabled people’s experiences of work. Instead of relying on a single measure, the Government should collect data against a set of indicators. It should continue to monitor the absolute number of disabled people who are in employment and the rate at which disabled people leave or remain in work compared to their non-disabled counterparts. In addition, it should measure the difference in average pay between disabled and non-disabled workers and consider adopting further measures of disabled people’s job quality. The Government should also consider adopting the Prevented from Working by Disability measure, which accounts for the prevalence of disability in the population, as an additional indicator against which it can measure progress.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government notes that data on employment, disability, and impairment type is already collected in the Family Resources Survey (FRS) but does not commit to collecting the additional specific indicators recommended, such as the Prevented from Working by Disability measure or new job quality metrics.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
24
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government · verbatim extract
Not Addressed
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.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗