UK: Video: Disability employment gap - Commons Work and Pensions Committee - 28 April 2021

[Andy]

"The Commons Work and Pensions Committee is investigating the gap between the employment rates of disabled and non-disabled people and how the Department for Work and Pensions can better support disabled people in the labour market.

This evidence session is expected to cover issues around measuring the gap as well as the employment support available for people with specific conditions and disabilities.

MPs could also ask about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on disabled people's employment rates, the support provided by the benefits system and the Government's plans for a National Strategy for Disabled People."

https://youtu.be/3SbCRueZtRQ

[Catherine Hale, Founder and Director, Chronic Illness Inclusion, talks about the effect that energy limiting conditions such as ME can have, her contributions start from around 1:07:00]

 

[alktipping]

we already know the dwp has a one size fits all approach to forcing people of benefits under the disguise of inclusion .

 

[Kitty]

Perhaps the biggest thing they could do to enable people with ME to take self-employed work when they can is allow them to step on and off ESA, without being punished for making the effort to work.

I was basically forced out of work, because although I could manage part time for several months, I would then need two or three months' rest. That meant going back onto the ESA assessment rate, which was not only impossible to live on but made it impossible to maintain the digital subscriptions that would have allowed me to go straight back into pitching for work when I'd recovered enough. Ludicrous system!

ETA: I did feed this back to the CIIP three or four years ago, when they were asking for people's experiences.

 

[Peter T]

Perhaps the biggest thing they could do to enable people with ME to take self-employed work when they can is allow them to step on and off ESA, without being punished for making the effort to work.

I was basically forced out of work, because although I could manage part time for several months, I would then need two or three months' rest. That meant going back onto the ESA assessment rate, which was not only impossible to live on but made it impossible to maintain the digital subscriptions that would have allowed me to go straight back into pitching for work when I'd recovered enough. Ludicrous system!

ETA: I did feed this back to the CIIP three or four years ago, when they were asking for people's experiences.

Presumably this lack of flexibility is a feature of most benefit systems, insurance systems and work place pensions internationally.

For example my work related ill health retirement required predicting when I was some twenty five years away from retirement age that I would never be well enough to work again. This all or nothing may have an adverse consequence of forcing people to work till they drop, certainly I fought to stay in work until my only alternatives were go for ill health retirement or be sacked because of my levels of sick leave. I don’t know if being able to drop in and out of work would have enabled me to work longer or not, but it not something the current system allows for.

 

[Kitty]

For example my work related ill health retirement required predicting when I was some twenty five years away from retirement age that I would never be well enough to work again.

I hit this too, though it wasn't that far ahead. As my pension's barely worth having anyway at £90 a month, and all income is deducted pound for pound from my ESA, I decided not to bother arguing! It came into payment when I hit 60.

Allowing rest breaks when needed is the only way many people with ME are going to be able to work. It's infuriating to stop people earning when they can; I might have been able to go on working for eight months of the year for several more years if I'd been allowed to do so. I couldn't earn enough through part-time work to subsidise myself for four months on the lowest rate of ESA, though, I'd have needed to be able to claim the full amount. It would still have been a lot cheaper for the taxpayer than me claiming it for 12 months a year, which ended up being my only option!