Employment support for disabled people

Status / emerging findings

• Committee concluded workplaces are 'hostile environments' for disabled people: employers are reluctant to make reasonable adjustments and many workplaces remain inaccessible, forcing disabled workers into unnecessary dependency on adjustments.
• Research evidence shows restricting disability benefits (as in the 2016 welfare cuts) does not increase employment—16 of 17 studies found no employment gains, but did increase poverty and mental health harm among disabled people.
• Employer support is the primary bottleneck: work coaches lack disability equality training; virtually no practical advisory support exists for employers implementing reasonable adjustments; regional variation in employment gaps (25–40 percentage points) reflects transport, local economy, and digital access disparities.
• Scotland's devolved approach (No One Left Behind) operates without set targets, allowing local flexibility but obscuring full outcome picture; England's mixed national-local model shows promise (West London reduced jobcentre referral dependency from 95% to 20–30% via NHS integration) but health service integration remains incomplete.
• Outcome-based payment models for employment support risk 'cream-skimming' easier cases and 'parking' less job-ready disabled people; New Deal for Disabled People achieved 5–11% employment through voluntary participation and strong jobcentre relationships.

Why it matters

Disabled people are locked out of work by employer reluctance and inaccessible offices, not personal failings; fixing this is essential to the government's economic plan and to reducing poverty among the 6 million disabled people currently economically inactive.

Tone arc

Started procedural and evidence-focused in November 2025 (early witness testimony on barriers and regional inequalities), shifted to critical of employer attitudes and systemic failures by December (academic evidence on harmful welfare reforms), then pragmatic in February 2026 (exploring delivery models and integration challenges in devolved settings).

Key witnesses

Michelle De Oude, Greater Manchester Disabled People's Panel, Professor Benjamin Barr, academic expert on policy evaluation, Professor Adam Whitworth, employment and welfare policy researcher, Conor D'Arcy, Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, Geoff Fimister, disability employment specialist, David Lillicrap, West London Alliance, Ruth Cooper, Renfrewshire Council / Local Authorities Economic Development Group, Kate Nicholls OBE, hospitality sector representative