A study used data from the Labour Force Survey to examine the labour market progression of disabled people along several dimensions: earnings growth, low-pay transition probabilities, changes in labour market participation, the rate of training, and the rate of upward occupational mobility. The evidence highlighted the need for policy to tackle the barriers that disabled people faced in the workplace, not merely in access to jobs.
Source: John Rigg, Labour Market Disadvantage amongst Disabled People: A longitudinal perspective, CASEpaper 103, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion/London School of Economics (020 7955 6679)
Date: 2005-Dec
A report presented the findings from a national survey of nearly 1,500 employers who had recruited individuals registered under the New Deal for Disabled People. Among those establishments that were aware of having employed disabled people, 42 per cent felt that there were advantages to doing so, compared to 24 per cent of those who were not so aware.
Source: Sara Dewson, Helen Ritchie and Nigel Meager, New Deal for Disabled People: Survey of Employers, Research Report 301, CDS/Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Date: 2005-Nov
A study compared the extent to which disabled and non-disabled young people had achieved their aspirations for work and education by the age of 26. Many disabled people had had their ambitions frustrated by their mid-twenties, and were left intensely disappointed at their inability to shape their own future.
Source: Tania Burchardt, The Education and Employment of Disabled Young People: Frustrated ambition, Policy Press for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Report | JRF Findings | JRF press release
Date: 2005-Nov
A new book examined the effectiveness of policy in the field of disability and employment. It considered whether the dichotomy of 'work for those who can and support for those who cannot' was appropriate to the lives of disabled people; and whether recent policies had reduced or reinforced barriers to paid employment.
Source: Alan Roulstone and Colin Barnes (eds.), Working Futures?: Disabled people, policy and social inclusion, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Nov
An article said that central government policies were doing little to change the perception within local government
of the employment needs of disabled people.
Source: Linda Piggott, Bob Sapey and Fred Wilenius, 'Out of touch: local government and disabled people's employment needs', Disability & Society, Volume 20 Number 6
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Oct
A report said that people with learning disabilities were too often excluded from mainstream education and jobs.
Source: Hazel Morgan et al., Rights of People with Intellectual Disabilities: Access to education and employment in the UK, Open Society Institute (eumap@osi.hu)
Links: Report (pdf) | OSI press release (pdf) | FPLD press release
Date: 2005-Oct
An audit report said that the government provided an effective range of support that helped thousands of disabled people find employment each year. But more needed to be done to increase the number of people assisted into work, and to help many of those disabled people already in the workplace retain their jobs.
Source: Gaining and Retaining a Job: The Department for Work and Pensions support for disabled people, HC 455 (Session 2005-06), National Audit Office, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report (pdf) | NAO press release | Community Care report
Date: 2005-Oct
A report said that a reliance on labour 'supply side' measures such as benefit reforms was not enough to move more people off incapacity benefits and into work. Achieving this would also require strong regional policies to deliver more jobs in the areas where incapacity claimants were concentrated.
Source: Steve Fothergill and John Grieve Smith, Mobilising Britain s Missing Workforce: Unemployment, incapacity benefit, and the regions, Catalyst, available from Central Books (020 8986 4854)
Links: Summary | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Sep
A report presented the desired outcomes of supported employment for disabled people, and the range of support required to help them to find and sustain employment.
Source: Angela Meah and Patricia Thornton, Desirable Outcomes of WORKSTEP: User and provider views, Research Report 279, CDS/Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2005-Sep
Researchers explored how incapacity benefit personal advisers and work psychologists had experienced the incapacity benefit pilots ('Pathways to Work') introduced in October 2003.
Source: Tim Knight, Sarah Dickens, Martin Mitchell and Kandy Woodfield, Incapacity Benefit Reforms The Personal Adviser Role and Practices: Stage two, Research Report 278, CDS/Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2005-Aug
A report provided interim findings from the job retention and rehabilitation pilot (designed to test the impact of health and/or work-related early intervention to help people at risk of losing their job through disability or ill-health). Overall, response to the trial had been positive.
Source: Nina Stratford, Christopher Farrell, Lucy Natarajan and Jane Lewis, Taking Part in a Randomised Control Trial: A participant s eye-view of the job retention and rehabilitation pilot, Research Report 273, CDS/Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | DWP press release (pdf)
Date: 2005-Aug
A report examined small employers awareness of the Disability Discrimination Act, and how they were responding to the new duties under it introduced on 1 October 2004. Total awareness of the Act had risen from 58 per cent to 63 per cent. The proportion of negative responses to statements about barriers to employing disabled people had decreased.
Source: Graham Kelly, Patsy Lam, Andrew Thomas and Caroline Turley, Disability in the Workplace: Small employers awareness and responses to the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) and the October 2004 duties, Research Report 277, CDS/Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | DWP press release (pdf)
Date: 2005-Aug
Researchers presented a model of moves into and out of paid employment which included disabled people.
Source: Michal Myck and Howard Reed, Disabled people in a dynamic model of labour supply and labour market transitions, Research Report 274, CDS/Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: No link
Date: 2005-Aug
A research report sought to assess the longer-term outcomes from the 'permitted work rules' (introduced in April 2002, under which claimants of incapacity benefits were allowed to work up to 16 hours per week and earn a set amount, for a limited period of time). It concluded that many claimants had been able to gain invaluable experience of working, while still receiving benefits, before making the move to full-time work.
Source: Sara Dewson, Sara Davis and George Loukas, Final Outcomes from the Permitted Work Rules, Research Report 268, CDS/Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2005-Aug
The government announced that the New Deal for Disabled People would be extended for a further year, to 31 March 2007.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 20 July 2005, column 103WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | DWP press release
Date: 2005-Jul
A report examined the characteristics and experiences of participants in the New Deal for Disabled People, together with their assessments of the job broker service, and a range of outcomes following participation - including paid work, training and other 'intermediate' outcomes, and health and quality-of-life indicators.
Source: Anne Kazimirski et al., New Deal for Disabled People Evaluation: Registrants Survey Merged Cohorts (Cohorts one and two, Waves one and two), Research Report 260, CDS/Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jul
A report said that 12.8 million working days a year were lost to work-related stress: but fewer than 1 in 10 companies had an official policy on mental health.
Source: Stress and Mental Health in the Workplace, Mind (020 8519 2122)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary | Mind press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-May
An official advisory body report made recommendations designed to help as many disabled people as possible to fulfil their potential in the labour market, including ways to make the government s welfare-to-work initiatives work more effectively for employers and disabled people.
Source: Able to Work, National Employment Panel (020 7340 4232)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-May
An annual survey report said that workplace absence cost the economy 12.2 billion in 2004, and that 1.7 billion of that might not be due to genuine ill-health. Each public sector employee was absent an average of almost 3 days more than each private sector worker.
Source: Who Cares Wins: Absence and labour turnover 2005, Confederation of British Industry (020 7395 8247)and AXA
Links: Summary | TUC press release | PCS press release | Work Foundation press release
Date: 2005-May
An article summarized a systematic review of the evidence on policy initiatives promoting employment of people with a disability or chronic illness. It said that it was difficult to determine if observed improvements in employment chances were due to the effectiveness of the welfare-to-work interventions themselves or to external factors.
Source: Clare Bambra, Margaret Whitehead and Val Hamilton, 'Does welfare-to-work work? A systematic review of the effectiveness of the UK's welfare-to-work programmes for people with a disability or chronic illness',Social Science & Medicine Volume 60, Issue 9
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-May
An article described recent trends in the employment of disabled people in the public sector in Great Britain. Over 840,000 disabled people worked in the public sector in 2004, a third more than in 1998.
Source: Michael Hirst and Patricia Thornton, 'Disabled people in public sector employment, 1998 to 2004', Labour Market Trends, May 2005, Office for National Statistics, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Article (pdf)
Date: 2005-May
An article said that in the period March-May 2004 1.7 million scheduled working days were lost to sickness absence among employees. Female employees, and younger employees aged 16-34, were more likely than other groups to take at least one day off sick. Lone mothers had the highest rate of sickness absence, followed by women with no dependent children (4.4 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively). Men without dependent children had the lowest rate of absence.
Source: Catherine Barham and Nasima Begum, 'Sickness absence from work in the UK', Labour Market Trends, April 2005, Office for National Statistics, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Article (pdf)
Date: 2005-Apr
The government announced that the 'pathways to work' pilots for incapacity benefit claimants, which included more frequent mandatory interviews and had previously focused on new claimants, would be extended to those who had been on the benefit for up to three years.
Source: Press release 7 February 2005, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7712 2171)
Links: DWP press release
Date: 2005-Feb
A report outlined the key findings of the second wave of qualitative research with employers regarding the New Deal for Disabled People. There was a low level of conscious involvement in NDDP as a named initiative. But employers reported that recruitment assistance, particularly pre-selection, was an important benefit of involvement.
Source: Jane Aston, Rebecca Willison, Sara Davis and Robert Barkworth, Employers and the New Deal for Disabled People: Qualitative research - Wave 2, Research Report 231, Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2005-Feb
The government announced plans to reform incapacity benefit (contained in the five-year plan for the Department for Work and Pensions). Future claimants would be put on a holding benefit paid at jobseeker's allowance rates, and would access the new reformed benefits only once they had been medically assessed. Those with more manageable conditions would receive a 'rehabilitation support allowance' at jobseeker's allowance levels - with additions for attending work-focused interviews, and for taking steps to return to the labour market. Those with the most severe conditions would automatically receive more money than under existing arrangements, on a 'disability and sickness allowance'. The new proposals would be piloted and subject to consultation, but with the goal that key elements would be in place for new claimants by 2008. An advice group said that the reforms would only succeed if they were properly resourced, and if the quality of decision-making improved greatly. Mental health campaigners warned that the proposals would discriminate against mentally ill people. But the disability rights watchdog welcomed them.
Source: Five Year Strategy: Opportunity and security throughout life, Cm 6447, Department for Work and Pensions, TSO (0870 600 5522) | Press release 2 February 2005, Citizens Advice (020 7833 2181) | Press release 2 February 2005, Rethink (formerly National Schizophrenia Fellowship) (020 7330 9100) | Press release 2 February 2005, Disability Rights Commission (08457 622633)
Links: Strategy (pdf) | DWP press release | Citizens Advice press release | Rethink press release | Mind press release | DRC press release | CPAG press release | TUC press release | IOD press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Feb
A survey of registrants on the New Deal for Disabled People identified their characteristics, and their experiences of the programme. In the first cohort, proportionally more men (63 per cent) than women registered. Although registrants were spread across age groups, the majority were aged under 50 years. The health conditions and disabilities of registrants were wide ranging, but 31 per cent had a mental health condition and 30 per cent a musculoskeletal condition. One year after registration, 7 out of 10 respondents were still registered with their job broker.
Source: Laura Adelman et al., New Deal for Disabled People: Survey of Registrants Report of cohort 1 waves 1 and 2, W213, Department for Work and Pensions (0114 209 8299)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jan
The opposition Conservative party announced a plan to help incapacity benefits claimants to return to work. It would offer a greatly enhanced role for the private and voluntary sectors - with payment by results for contractors, who would be paid a fixed amount per claimant on the completion of various milestones. It would provide rehabilitation to the estimated two-thirds of claimants (1.8 million) with manageable conditions who could undertake some form of work, and security for the remaining third (0.9 million) who were unable to work.
Source: Press release 31 January 2005, Conservative Party (020 7222 9000)
Links: Conservative Party press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Jan
A trade union report countered the 'myths' that workers in the United Kingdom particularly in the public sector - were always taking sick leave; that stress was not a serious illness; and that the solution to sicknote Britain' was a drastic cutback on the numbers of people in receipt of incapacity benefit.
Source: Sicknote Britain?: Countering an urban legend, Trades Union Congress (020 7467 1294)
Links: Report (pdf) | TUC press release
Date: 2005-Jan
A report discussed the evidence base in relation to disabled people's access to, and participation in, the labour market in Scotland, and identified gaps in existing research in order to inform future research.
Source: Sheila Riddell, Pauline Banks and Teresa Tinklin, Disability and Employment in Scotland: A review of the evidence base, Scottish Executive, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283)
Date: 2005-Jan
The government announced that the 'pathways to work' scheme to help people on incapacity benefits back to work would be extended to a third of all claimants in less than two years. By October 2005, 420,000 people on incapacity benefits would be able to take advantage of the scheme, rising to 750,000 by April 2006 and to 900,000 by October 2006.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 25 January 2005, columns 12-14WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard | DWP press release
Date: 2005-Jan