Disabled People: Employment Debate

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Department: Department for Work and Pensions

Disabled People: Employment

Lord Davies of Coity Excerpts
Monday 21st March 2011

(13 years, 10 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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None Portrait Noble Lords
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Hollis!

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Lord Freud Portrait Lord Freud
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My Lords, my last answer made clear the extraordinary success of Remploy in getting people with disabilities into jobs. That does not seem to have been affected by a very difficult employment market. I remind the House of the relative costs: the factory business of Remploy takes between 20 per cent and 25 per cent of the total that we as a country spend on disability employment programmes to support some 3,000 people.

Lord Davies of Coity Portrait Lord Davies of Coity
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My Lords, while recognising that the policy of the coalition Government is to have voluntary separation and voluntary redundancy, does the Minister agree with me that even on a voluntary basis the number of job opportunities will be reduced for disabled people in the future?

Lord Freud Portrait Lord Freud
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My Lords, I hope that I have made absolutely clear the exact opposite. The employment services strategy is working. Numbers are going up. It is looking to help 30,000 people per year by 2012-13 into mainstream jobs. A company such as ASDA has already taken on 1,000 disabled people. With this strategy we are delivering something that disabled lobbies and people want—to be in full, mainstream employment.