Government hits disability employment target, but critic calls stats ‘meaningless’

The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows over one million more disabled people are in employment compared to five years ago.

Figures show the number of disabled people in employment has increased by 1.3 million since 2017, reaching a government goal to get one million more disabled people into work by 2027.

The 10-year employment goal was set as a government manifesto commitment in 2017, as part of plans to diversify the workforce.

Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, Chloe Smith MP, said: ‘This is an important milestone showing our commitment to supporting disabled people to lead independent lives and reach their full potential.

‘Ensuring everyone has the same opportunity for a fulfilling working life is a key part of levelling up the country and we will continue to push for greater accessibility and inclusion for disabled jobseekers.’

However, critics have called the statistics ‘meaningless’ and highlighted how the government’s previous 2015 target to halve the disability employment gap in five years was abandoned.  

Professor Vicki Wass, from Cardiff University Business School, released a report analysing the figures in which she says the statistics are nothing to celebrate.

She said no real policy initiative or investment was put behind the 2015 target, so it failed, while the second commitment hasn’t offered anything new to disabled people wanting work.

According to Professor Wass, the main drive in the rise of disabled people in employment is a 1.9 million rise in the number of people reporting themselves as disabled since 2017.

‘DWP’s own research has indicated that 70% of the increase in employment of disabled people between 2014 and 2019 was down to factors other than the Disability Employment Gap (DEG),’ she wrote.  ‘Rather it was driven by an increase in employment, an increase in the working-age population and an increase in disability reporting.’

‘The Disability Minister is justified in celebrating the employment expansion and the increase in disability reporting, to the extent that the latter reflects greater social awareness and acceptance that has occurred since disability targets were set in 2015 and 2017. The evidence suggests that there is much less to celebrate if the aim of either was to address disability employment disadvantage.’

The government is set to invest £1.3bn in employment support for disabled people over the next three years, with the DWP’s Health and Disability White Paper, due this summer, outlining how it will be spent.

Photo by Jon Tyson