This week Shadow Minister for Disabled People Jonathan Ashworth set out Labour’s plans to “Get Britain Working”. This included how they would help disabled people.
Unfortunately, this plan wasn’t much different to what we’ve heard from Conservative Minister for Disabled People Tom Pursglove; yep, that’s right, it was all about work.
Speaking at the Centre for Social Justice, Ashworth unveiled his plans to support people back into work.
While there were many good points, disappointingly he fell back on the old ideologies his conservative counterpart favours, which massively involved only supporting disabled people who “wanted” to work.
I use quotation marks around the word 'want' here, because it’s a contentious subject.
Ashworth used the figure that only around four per cent of people in the Employment Support Allowance support group return to work each year. However, the assumption here is that everyone in the support groups can and wants to work.
Many are pushed into work support groups and suffer through continuous scrutiny with fear of sanctions before either being forced into jobs that harm their health or facing reassessments to judge if they’re disabled enough.
Ashworth also focused on the massive number who have fallen out of the workforce. But again, like Pursglove and the Chancellor in his autumn statement, completely ignored that we’re three years into a mass disabling pandemic.
The shadow minister branded the low number of people who return to work “totally unacceptable” and “a monumental waste of the potential of the British People”, which implies that disabled people are only worthy when we’re working.
Another concerning thing was the language used to describe unemployed disabled people on benefits, phrases such as “a growing burden on the economy and taxpayers”.
This made my blood run cold, as being a burden is a constant insecurity disabled people have. It also harks back to the scrounger narrative I thought we were past.
He said that there would be broker flexible working opportunities, but when people with Long Covid are being brushed over so easily, I’m sceptical about this. This also focused on over-50s with chronic conditions, but what about the young disabled people who also need flexibility in jobs?
The reason I am freelance and still don’t have a full-time job is because in my profession, and many others, we’re still focused on in-office culture that relies on strict long hours, which I just could never do.
As the news broke that last year 25,289 people were being kept out of work whilst still waiting for a decision on their Access to Work claim, Ashworth promised that a Labour government would put plans in place that allow people to be assessed without a job offer, with the aim of giving employers support and guidelines.
Ashworth said: “Under our changes, people looking for work will be able to apply without a job offer, and be given an ‘in principle’ indicative award so that both they and their future employers know what support will be available for them if they find a job.”
However, this needs to be more than just them knowing what support is available.
Any current or successive government aiming to tackle the inequalities in employment and get disabled people into work must also commit to tackling this work culture. They must create legislation that protects the rights of disabled people to work from home and in a way which works best for them.
They also need to commit to narrowing the disability pay gap, which stands at over £3,700 a year, and the unemployment gap, currently at 6.8 per cent; double that of non-disabled people.
This is a sentiment echoed by Rachael Mole of Sic, an organisation that supports disabled people and works with businesses to make them more accessible and inclusive.
“The government and labours pledge need to recognise that organisations need more support in becoming accessible and inclusive places to work, before putting the pressure on disabled people to find and keep work,” Mole told The Mirror.
“Disability confident is a tick box start, but isn’t enough. More funding is needed for disabled-led organisations who can lead this change from lived experience.”
I was also pleased with the plan to make it easier for people to claim ESA again, if their jobs didn’t work out. Though it shouldn’t be restricted to after a year of working there. What if someone starts a job and is continuously not supported, or made to feel like they don’t belong there? Will they have to stick it out for a year to avoid the gruelling assessment process again?
And what about all benefits assessments that are dehumanising and involve having to prove you’re disabled enough? While Ashworth said: “for people who cannot work we guarantee security.” What does that mean? How are we gauging who can and can’t work in the first place?
Perhaps most worrying was the announcement that benefit sanctions would continue. Previousy, under Corbyn, Labour had promised to “suspend the Tories’ pernicious sanctions regime”. However, Ashworth defended the right to keep sanctions in place saying: “There will be rights and responsibilities running through social security, and that is important.”
I’m not really sure how Mr Ashworth and Labour can claim to “prioritise wellbeing and security above all” whilst still imposing these cruel sanctions that see people struggling to survive.
I would like to point out I’ve nearly always voted Labour (except for that time Nick Clegg conned all the first-time voters), and I intend to again in the next election. But to see they also view disabled people the same as the Tories do isn’t reassuring at all that anything will change for us with a new government.
Ashworth called it “frankly a scandal” that one in 10 of out-of-work disabled people or older workers were receiving any support, but I think the bigger scandal is that we’re still only basing worth on how much people can contribute to the labour market.
