Campaigners slate welfare-to-work proposals

Disability campaigners have condemned a raft of measures which the government says will move disabled people off benefits and into work.

In late November, as part of its strategy to reform the welfare system, the government announced:

•a consultation on plans to improve support for disabled people in job centres;
• a new training programme to help nurses prepare patients to return to work;
•a trebling of the number of employment advisers in GP surgeries;
•the pilot of a new advice and support service for businesses, as part of a new national mental health and work strategy;
•welfare-to-work contractors to be paid according to the number of people they place in jobs and the length of time they stay in those jobs.

Work and pensions secretary Peter Hain (pictured) said his welfare-to-work priority was “what works best and providing value for money for taxpayers”.

But Simone Aspis, of the United Kingdom’s Disabled People’s Council, said the government’s aim was to push “disabled people into low-paid, low-skilled jobs”.
She added: “There will not be any motivation to support disabled people, to [help them to] develop career plans so they can
get into the jobs that they want to do.”

Paul Treloar, of Disability Alliance, said he had been disappointed by the government’s approach to reform and its talk of a “sicknote” culture among benefit claimants.