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Response to Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People On behalf of Trade Union Disability Alliance

The agenda set out by the recent report from the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit (Improving the Life Chances of Disabled People) would, if fully implemented, make an important contribution to promoting equality for disabled people. In particular:

• the promotion of independent living would enable disabled people to achieve self-determination, participate fully in, and contribute fully to, family, community, social and economic life
• addressing the personalised support people need to get into and remain in paid employment, together with tackling discriminatory and ill-informed attitudes amongst employers, would similarly promote equal access to the three elements of full citizenship
• disabled people’s organisation, modelled on the existing Centres for Independent Living, will help to promote active citizenship amongst disabled people in their local communities.
  

However, the report has its limitations which need to be addressed:

• there is no firm commitment to giving people an entitlement not to have to move into residential care in order to get the support they need
• there is no firm commitment to redistribute and use resources in ways which enable disabled people to be fully included in society
• there are no proposals to address the high risk of poverty experienced by disabled people or, in particular, the failure of disability benefit levels to meet the additional costs of impairment or illness
• its proposals are made in the context of continuing stigmatisation of people receiving incapacity benefit while at the same time there are significant cutbacks in the DWP making it difficult to deliver the personalised support the report identifies is needed to help people into work
• the report does not cover people over retirement age. There is an urgent need to address the negative attitudes towards older people, the inadequate resources and disempowering services provided within the community care framework, and their consequent social exclusion.
  

In summary – fine words but disabled people will need to press for action, and indeed for money to be spent

We make the following additional comments regarding the employment chapter.

We agree with the Prime Minister that Disabled people are trapped into long term or even lifelong dependency on Incapacity Benefit but disagree with Government views associating incapacity benefit with "scrounging." We are therefore pleased that despite the grim rumours that Alan Johnson confirmed in a statement to the House of Commons on February 2, 2005 that no-one would be paid at a rate less than that of Jobseekers Allowance. We also support the Government's aspiration to increase the employment rate amongst disabled people to 80%.

We call on the Government to introduce the following measures to help bring this about:

a) Promote the “Access to Work“ scheme and increasing resources available to this scheme to cope with increased demand that is likely to result from extensions to the Disability Discrimination Act. We oppose proposed increases in employers’ contribution and restriction of use by central government departments. We welcome the exploration of Direct Payment, passporting and self-assessment systems (7.10)

b) Give Employment Tribunals the power to order the reinstatement and re-engagement in disability discrimination cases.

c) Introduce legislation to provide Disability Leave for those with new or changed impairments in order that they may have paid time off for rehabilitation and retraining with the right to return to the same or similar job in the same way as women returning from Maternity Leave.

d) The Treasury needs to address the real cost to Disabled people trying to get off Incapacity Benefit and into paid work, including the additional personal cost of inaccessible housing, transport, education facilities and not least the barriers within recruitment and selection procedures.
Pensions

Under the DWP Five Year Plan people will be encouraged to defer taking up their state pension for five year's in return for a £20-30,000 lump sum or 50% extra per week. Employers will also have to consider seriously requests from employees to go on working beyond 65. Disabled pensioners also face additional costs. The incidence of physical and sensory impairment increases with age. Therefore if disabled people are to work longer the need to introduce Disability Leave and provide more resources for Access to Work becomes even more urgent otherwise disabled pensioners will become even more impoverished.

We call on the Pensions Commission to examine the needs of disabled people and all other groups that face discrimination in terms of pension provision.

The role of occupational health

The report proposes an expansion of occupational health service (7.2a). The experience of TUDA members is that often it is occupational health that holds the most prejudiced views about the abilities of disabled workers and often plays a negative role, creating unnecessary barriers in relation to employment.

Similarly too often income protection insurance operate exclusionary policies which create barriers for disabled workers (see recommendation 7.2b). If the role of either is to be promoted the Government must have a vigorous strategy for tackling discrimination and exclusion in both these sectors.

Improving employability

In our view the Learning and Skills Council and the Regional Development Agencies pay lipservice (at best ) to disability equality. They will not deliver the necessary skills increases to disabled people unless they have very firm targets imposed on them by the Government. In this respect recommendation 7.6 is far too weak. Similarly with regards 7.8a – there needs to be clear targets for advanced modern apprenticeships.

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