Employment for People with Disabilities

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick Excerpts

Tuesday 5th July 2016 Westminster Hall

[Ms Margaret Ritchie (South Down) (SDLP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I congratulate the hon. Member for St Ives (Derek Thomas) on securing this debate on such an important issue. It is about the barriers to employment for many people in our society who are disabled, and I hope that I can bring to it a perspective from Northern Ireland.

We are dealing with people who were born with disabilities and those who were diagnosed later—reference has already been made to people with autism and with special needs. There should be no barriers in society, whether in work or in other spheres of life, for people who are disabled and are seeking to improve their lives, the lives of their families and the contribution that they can make.

Equality and protection of equal rights is vital throughout the UK. Discrimination against those with disabilities in the workplace is rightly forbidden by law. Those who were born with or who develop a disability are entitled to the same amount of respect and the same opportunities as all of us in this Chamber have. Anti-discrimination legislation is a key component in the promotion of employment for those with disabilities and their protection in the workplace, yet it is not sufficient on its own and efforts must be made to influence the work culture. In any discussion about the current Human Rights Act 1998, it is important that the provisions on people who have disabilities in the workplace are not diminished or diluted in any way. It is important that those well-held protections are copper-fastened, secured and sustained.

People with disabilities are not a homogenous group, and employers and colleagues must realise their obligation to accommodate different people’s specific needs. Negative attitudes to disability, both physical and mental, and stigma must be challenged. Employment can not only make an important contribution to the lives of disabled people but demonstrate that they, too, make a significant contribution to our economy and society. They have much to offer and they bring a different perspective, often derived from their disability and their experience due to their disability.

Many people with a disability develop it in adulthood. I support programmes that enable people to develop new skills when they are diagnosed with a disability and forced to retrain. It is important that they are allowed and enabled to do that if it is what they want. However, the Government—I say this advisedly—must learn that a disabled person cannot be sanctioned into work. The current system, and particularly the welfare system, sometimes punishes people with disabilities who struggle to find suitable work. We have seen examples of that throughout our constituencies and particularly in Northern Ireland. It can punish people who may never be able to do the type of paid work—or give the time that is needed—that employers currently value.

This Government, and the previous coalition Government, have hijacked disability rights group language about independence in order to cut the rights of disabled people. Cutting the work-related activity component of employment and support allowance—ESA—would not have supported people with disabilities into work. There is some evidence base for that. Like other Members, yesterday I received a briefing from Parkinson’s UK that clearly states:

“The cut to financial support for those in the ESA work related activity…from April 2017 will push people with Parkinson’s even further from the workplace,”—

when we want to encourage them to stay in or enter the workplace, and can—

“cause unnecessary stress which will make their condition worse and harm their financial situation which may already be precarious.”

The key, here, is recognising the need to challenge attitudes to disabled people in the workplace and to support them if they are able to work. To pile financial pressure on them is counterproductive and cruel. The focus and concentration for Government, and agencies as well, must be to challenge discrimination, as the hon. Member for St Ives highlighted in his very thoughtful contribution. We must make the workplace more equal and we must promote awareness of the support mechanisms that are available. There must be fair treatment in back-to-work schemes for people who may have already been in the workplace and find themselves disabled as a result of an accident but want to contribute to society and make their own lives better. There must be recognition and support for people who cannot work because of their disabilities, but who wish to do so and wish to make that contribution. I look forward to the response from the Minister on this very important issue.