Shaw announces more money for Access To Work

By Sunil Peck

Campaigners have welcomed an initial investment worth £8 million into the Access to Work (ATW) scheme but say that it is not enough.

The Jobcentre Plus scheme provides funding for support and specialist equipment to allow a disabled person to deal with disability-related barriers in the workplace.

The funding will be made available over the next 12 months and will take the existing amount of money up to £77 million.

Announcing the investment at a conference on helping more disabled people into work, Jonathan Shaw, Minister for Disabled People, said that one aspect of improving rights and opportunities for disabled people was making sure that everyone had the same opportunities to find and stay in work.

He said: "Even in the current economic downturn we are committed to ensuring that disabled people get the support they need to take control of their lives and live independently."

Peter Purton, the TUC's disability policy officer, welcomed the money and said that ATW had proved to be one of the best ways of reducing unemployment rates among disabled people.

But he urged the government to invest more money into ATW and to raise awareness of the scheme among employers.

Gareth Davies, president of the National League of Blind and Disabled People, said that the investment as a step in the right direction.

He said: "You can only welcome it. I would still caution that the unemployment rates for blind people and people with learning difficulties are still far too high and I don't think this money is going to solve that."

Mark Fysh, the Oxfordshire County Unison branch secretary and Lead Officer on disability for the TUC General Council, said that ATW had enabled him to gain a senior job in local government.

He said that he had been lucky and he knew of many other disabled people who faced barriers to career advancement because of the problems they faced in obtaining funding from ATW.

Mr Fysh said: "I am a wheelchair user and do thousands of miles each year. I have someone who drives for me, who carries documents for me and does general PA work as well."

He added: "This government wants to get disabled people off benefit. One way to do that is to use the money that they would otherwise use on benefits to open more doors for disabled people so that they can become employees and become an economic class."

The Government has pledged to increase ATW funding to £138 million by 2014.