Recommendation 16

Unemployment has risen because of the pandemic, but some sectors have been hit harder than others. Sectors which have seen the highest proportion of job losses are those that have been “shut down” in response to the pandemic, such as arts and leisure, retail and passenger transport. Some groups of people are also more likely to have lost their jobs, including disabled people, young people, women, low-paid workers and workers from BAME backgrounds. We welcome the announcement of two new employment support schemes: Restart, aimed at the long-term unemployed, and Kickstart, aimed at young people on Universal Credit. But neither scheme has specific provisions for disabled people, and we have heard concerns from disability organisations about how well they will work for disabled people in practice. DWP must ensure that both schemes meet the needs of groups who are particularly likely to have lost out during the pandemic. To do that, it will need to collect better data than it currently has.

Paragraph Reference: 92