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The Employers'
Forum on Disability is the authoritative employers' voice on disability
as it affects business. Through networking events, publications, briefings,
website and helpline, the Forum makes it easier to employ and retain disabled
people and to serve disabled customers. |
Few signs of improved job prospects for disabled people
Consecutive governments have implemented policies designed to promote employment
opportunities for disabled people and direct more resources to those in greatest
need.
A recent study looks at the impact these policies have had over the last 20
years.
Half of all disabled people have incomes below half the general population mean
(often taken as an indicator of poverty), after making an adjustment for extra
costs. Even without adjustment, two in five are found to be in poverty - an
increase of one-sixth since 1985.
These figures are taken from a Joseph Rowntree Foundation study 'Enduring economic
exclusion: disabled people, income and work', published in November 2000.
Study author Tania Burchardt used nationally representative surveys to examine
the past and present position of disabled people of working age in the income
distribution and labour market.
The definitions of disability used in the research were largely determined by
the data sources and, while broader definitions of disability make problems
seem more widespread, the barriers faced by those who are more severely impaired
tend to be understated.
Available for work
The study found that employment rates among disabled people are low at around
40 per cent and show little sign of increasing.
In 1999 disabled people made up half of all those who were not employed but
said they would like to work, and one-third of those who were available could
start within a fortnight.
However, one-third of disabled people who do find work are out of a job again
by the following year.
Of those who become disabled while in work, one in six lose their employment
during the first year after becoming disabled.
By implication, improving retention could make a substantial difference to overall
rates of employment among disabled people.
The study also found that employed disabled people are disproportionately likely
to be in manual occupations and have lower average hourly earnings then their
non-disabled peers - even after taking account of differences in age, education
and occupation. This earnings gap appears to have grown substantially since
1985.
Many disabled people incur additional expenditure as a result of their impairment.
Specific benefits such as the Disability Living Allowance, are designed to help
with these costs. Additional tiers of benefit have reached further down the
severity scale, although take-up still remains low.
Despite some benefit improvements, and real absolute income gains across all
severity categories, disabled people remain poor relative to the general population.
Transition into work
Three themes emerged from Tania Burchardt's findings.
First, insufficient attention has been paid to transitions between employment
and non-employment, and between being non-disabled and being disabled.
Benefit rules need to be sufficiently flexible to accommodate fluctuating conditions
(particularly associated with mental illness and some degenerative diseases)
and varying patterns of work.
Additional support should be offered to individuals when they become disabled
in order to retain their employment.
The study found that the 'New Deal for Disabled People' pilots on job retention
are welcome in this respect, but the schemes will need to recognise that barriers
to continuing employment occur at and beyond the workplace, as well as at an
individual level.
Similarly, those who are already disabled and succeed in getting work need more
support in keeping their jobs.
The second theme to emerge was that disability policy often focuses on barriers
specific to impairment.
These are important but do not exhaust the disadvantages faced by disabled people,
a high proportion of whom lack a connection with the labour market, come from
a lower social class background and have fewer educational qualifications.
Nor are disabled people immune from trends which affect the rest of society
such as the economic cycle, regional disparities and growth in earnings inequality.
In fact, in many cases, disabled people are particularly susceptible to these
more general pressures.
Local authority charges
Thirdly, benefits policy has not addressed the basic question of whether disabled
people have enough to secure a standard of living comparable to their non-disabled
peers.
Local authority charges for personal care services have become more widespread,
and it remains to be seen whether statutory guidance recently proposed by the
Government will ease this burden.
Unless benefit levels are linked to national prosperity, the living standards
of disabled people, especially those with more severe impairments, will continue
to be well below the rest of society.
Burchardt concludes that many of the factors behind economic exclusion for disabled
people are common to other groups in society and that inclusion will not be
achieved until both the impairment-specific and more general barriers to participation
are dismantled.
Copies of the full report 'Enduring economic exclusion: disabled people, income
and work' by Tania Burchardt (ISBN 1 84263 007 5, price £14.95), are available
from York Publishing Services Ltd on 01904 430033.
About the study
The research was based on analysis of national representative household surveys:
Waves 1 to 7 of the British Household Panel Survey; the 1985 OPCS Survey of
Disabled Adults in Private Households (both supplied by the Data Archive at
Essex); the 1996/97 Family Resources Survey, Disability Follow-up and Households
Below Average Income dataset (supplied by the Department of Social Security)
and Labour Force Survey for 1984 to 1996. Tables supplied by the LFS Bureau.
This article appeared in the Forum's quarterly newsletter, Update. For more
information please see our website: www.employers-forum.co.uk
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