Written evidence from Name Withheld (DEG0027)
I am responding to your call for evidence through Scope, the disability equality charity. I want to share my experiences of the barriers I've faced getting into work and what can be improved to help disabled people in the future.
I've answered two questions below as part of your call for evidence.
What extra support would you benefit from to get into work?
Having employers held to account and asked to actually respond to people who have applied for a job. I have applied for countless posts and have had no response whatsoever, it is pure ignorance on behalf of the employer. I/We deserve better.
Looking to the future, what does the Government need to improve on to help disabled people get into, stay and progress in work?
Start supporting disabled candidates, stop paying "lip-service" to disabled people. Personally, I am just as capable of doing the job, but when I find that in the majority of cases - the employer does not have the common courtesy to respond, it is soul-destroying. The government should insist that the employer should have to respond to us.
The disability employment gap has been stuck close to 30 percent for over a decade, and the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic has seen disabled people falling out of work faster than non-disabled people.
Scope wants the Government to deliver on its pledge to tackle the disability employment gap. The Government must use the opportunity of the forthcoming National Strategy for Disabled People to set out plans to close the gap.
I hope that the evidence I have provided, alongside research from Scope will prove useful to the committee.