Written evidence from Name Withheld (DEG0040)

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 in 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 in work? Or what would you change about existing support on offer?

Employers rarely ask me how they can implement reasonable adjustments. Because I have an invisible disability they assume that I can work as an able bodied employee. As a result I regularly end up working in ways which burden my disability, and have to take periods of sick leave to recover. This impacts upon my reputation (as employers have told me that I am letting them down/am unreliable because of my health needs) and my ability to even consider promotion opportunities (if it’s been hard with less responsibility why would I take on more). During 2020 the lack of support in work was particularly difficult for me. I began a new job just before the initial lockdown and was furloughed without pay due to the scheme having a deadline for new employees. During this period I had no income. During the lockdown I fell pregnant and due to complications (not related to my disability) was unable to return to work when lockdown ended. I received statutory sick pay during this time (95.85 a week) I was able to return to work in September. I am now about to enter my 28th week of pregnancy, which puts me at risk of Covid complications, in addition, my disability (type 1 diabetes) also makes me clinically vulnerable. My midwife has communicated that I need to be working from home, and I have discussed the issue with my employer. Regardless, my employer are assigning me work which takes several hours of travel (via public transport). I now feel that I cannot afford to take further sick leave, and feel concerned that by raising the health and safety requirements of my employer, I will be seen in a negative light.

Although there are legal policies in place to provide protection to disabled employees, accessing them often requires that we begin employment as an ‘inconvenience’. I think disability policy needs to consider the gender pay gap model, and needs to create a competitive need for employers to not only employ disabled people, but also provide the best benefits for them.

Looking to the future, what does the Government need to improve on to help disabled people get into, stay and progress in work?

Employing disabled people needs to be promoted as a best practice model. Disabled people are often far more resilient and able to navigate problems than able bodied people. We need to be seen as a valuable asset, rather than as a burden. I believe that there needs to be a quota model which (rather than focussing upon all elements of the equality act) is focussed solely upon the intake and retention of disabled employees. In addition I think there needs to be a core set of reasonable adjustments which can be used to model personal requirements. For example flexible working could be a core adjustment which was required by law, the pattern of flexible work could then be decided between the employer/employee. In my own experience I have not been offered any core adjustments, and have instead had to fight for any needs I have (or go without them).

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.

December 2020