March 28, 2019
Government lacks the know-how to help disabled people get into work
The Department for Work Pensions has limited evidence of what works when it comes to supporting disabled people to work, according to the National Audit Office (NAO) in a report published today. The number of disabled people in work has risen by 930,000 (31 percent) in the last five years, but this has not been matched by a reduction in the number of disabled people who are out of work. The NAO found that the government’s headline goal of getting one million more disabled people into work from 2017 to 2027 cannot be used to measure the success of its efforts. The Department itself recognises that this measure cannot be linked directly to any specific government policy or programme. Broader factors, such as more people who are already in work reporting a disability, and rising employment rates, have a significant effect on the measure. It therefore lacks a target for which it is willing to be held to account. More →