Disabled people are being held back from participating in good jobs which is contributing to the rise in caseloads for work-related disability benefits, according to a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Trust.
The report Unlocking benefits: Tackling barriers for disabled people says that there is a need for ‘pressing’ reforms to unlock work for people receiving work-related disability benefits and the Government must focus on objectives around economic growth to ensure everyone has the same opportunities to access work and economic security.
It adds that policymakers should not fall into the trap of narrowly focusing on caseloads and benefit spending. Instead, they should directly address underlying health and structural drivers, which are damaging to economic growth and security in themselves.
Work-related disability benefits include health-related Universal Credit (UC) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and according to Scope people on these benefits face unacceptable levels of hardship. A quarter of adults on health-related UC used a food bank in the last year, and a third were unable to afford to keep their house warm. This compares to 3% and 11%, respectively, for the general working-age population.
Scope’s latest research shows that, on average, disabled households need an additional £1,010 a month to maintain the same standard of living as non-disabled households, although this will vary according to individual circumstances.
The report says that there are two main routes to addressing the hardship facing people receiving work-related disability benefits. Firstly, increasing the adequacy of these benefits, which are vital lifelines for disabled people; and secondly, supporting disabled people who can work into the labour market.
It also says that worsening population health and its interaction with structural factors are likely to be key drivers to worsening caseloads for benefits. Examples of structural factors include the condition of health-related public services (like the NHS or social care) and the labour market (such as how adapted jobs are for people with health conditions).
The cost-of-living crisis, combined with factors such as extremely inadequate basic safety net support, could also have increased the take-up of previously underclaimed work-related disability benefits.
Policy must therefore focus on improving population health and healthcare. It needs to ensure that jobs are designed to be much more viable for disabled people and more supportive when employees become ill. This means, for example, increasing job adaptability, flexible working and changing employer attitudes towards disability.
Almost three-quarters of work-related disability benefits recipients surveyed for the report said that fear of losing benefits was a significant or very significant barrier to work.
This fear has three key aspects:
This is exacerbated by confusion and a lack of clear communication from Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) about existing benefit rules on work. Around 60% of work-related disability benefit recipients surveyed said either they are not allowed to work, or they are not sure if they are allowed to work. This is despite there being no theoretical limit on the amount of work that health-related UC recipients are allowed to do.
There was also low trust in DWP which added to a culture of fear and negativity. This rests on a series of negative interactions with the system experienced by disabled people, including traumatic experiences of assessments. People feel these are unfair, focus on irrelevant things, and can be incredibly stressful and demeaning.
The report recommended the following:
The report concluded: “The new Government must not repeat the failed approaches of the past. Instead, it should take a fresh approach to benefit system reform, working alongside disabled people to put forward an alternative reform agenda: one that will ultimately be more effective at supporting disabled people into work, tackling hardship and increasing economic security.
“Such an approach would reduce risk for disabled people who engage with employment support, move towards work or into work; it would improve trust in DWP, fix assessments and change the culture of fear and negativity; and it would bring a step-change in early, voluntary-based engagement, and effective employment support.”
