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Benefits system keeps disabled people on dole

The government must provide adequate and flexible benefits for disabled people and tackle employers’ negative attitudes, if disabled people are to be able to play a full role in society, disability organisations say.

According to a recent study, Enduring Economic Exclusion: disabled people, income and work, disabled people are less able to find work despite actively seeking it, and they are less likely to be kept on the payroll when they do find it. About 60 per cent of disabled people of working age do not have a job, and last year accounted for half of all those unemployed and seeking work.

The study, undertaken by the London School of Economics centre for the analysis of social exclusion, has established that one in three disabled people find themselves out of work within a year of starting a new job. One in six people in work who become ‘limited in daily activities’ lose their job within a year.

The key to gaining and maintaining employment is better benefits, disability experts believe.

Tania Burchardt, author of the research, said: ‘Benefit rules should help people stay in work by being flexible when people’s conditions fluctuate – as with mental illness or degenerative disease.’

Vanessa Davis, spokesperson for the Disability Alliance, said the key issue was ensuring that disabled people have the right amount of benefits to enable them to get work and remain in employment. ‘Benefit levels have to reflect the real costs – the extra costs – of disability,’ she said.