Business: Disability

(asked on 12th November 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that disabled people have fair and equal opportunities to become successful business leaders.


Answered by
Sarah Newton Portrait
Sarah Newton
This question was answered on 20th November 2018

The Government is committed to seeing a million more disabled people in work by 2027 and ensuring that disabled people have fair and equal opportunities to become successful business leaders. The latest figures (published Tuesday 13 Nov) show that disability employment has increased by 973,000 in the last five years.

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects disabled people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand and strengthening protection in some situations.

We actively support disabled people to enter employment through initiatives like the Work and Health Programme, which is expected to support 220,000 disabled people over 5 years; and the Personal Support Package for those on ESA and Universal Credit equivalents.

We also support new and existing disabled workers with Access to Work, which approved support for 27,730 disabled workers in 2017/18, an increase of 11% on 2016/17. The support Access to Work offers includes a discretionary grant of up to £57,200 pa, without which many disabled business leaders might not be able to achieve their employment goals.

We engage with employers through Disability Confident. Over 9,500 employers are currently signed up to Disability Confident and that number grows weekly.

We are integrating Access to Work communications into Disability Confident promotions so employers can easily understand how they can receive support with the costs of making workplace adjustments.

Potential disabled entrepreneurs who are claiming benefits such as ESA or UC equivalents may receive specialist self-employment support through Work and Health Programme and Personal Support Package. The Work and Health Programme includes integrated access to specialist support networks at a local level. In addition, claimants who wish to start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs may be able to receive start up support through the New Enterprise Allowance (NEA). Around 1 in 4 people who start on the NEA have a self-declared disability.

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