APPENDIX 26
Memorandum submitted by the New Beginnings
Advisory Group (EDP 35)
THE NEW
BEGINNINGS PROGRAMME
1. The New Beginnings initiative comprises
a pan-organisational and pan-disability coalition liaising with
Government including leading employers and organisations of and
for disabled people (eg Disability Alliance, Scottish Power, HSBC
and the Shaw Trust, UnumProvident) to remove the barriers that
prevent disabled people finding and keeping work. This coalition
is closely and actively involved with a number of groups to promote
disabled people to employers and to help employers recruit and
retain disabled people in the workplace.
WELFARE REFORM
2. The Group's experience leads it to believe
that there are two key developments needed to achieve successful
return to work for people who become disabled. The first is to
set the expectation of a return to work (and in this respect,
the language around incapacity benefit and inactivity is particularly
important, and currently, unhelpful). The second is a requirement
for a flexible welfare system that supports the disabled person
in work, both financially, and through access to training and
support and that continues to provide such support for periods
in and out of work.
3. The current welfare, tax and benefits
systems can make it difficult for disabled people to return to
work. They can act as a disincentive to encourage disabled people
to look for work or to find work if they want it and are overly
complex.
4. The current plethora of benefits for
people with disabilities is confusing and piecemeal and can often
leave disabled people with the belief that they are better off
in receiving benefits than being in work.
5. Tax credits have been a step in the right
direction in terms of creating financial return to work incentives
but they remain an overly-complex mechanism to encourage disabled
people to go back into the workplace as can be witnessed by the
paucity of take-up so far.
6. The New Deal for Disabled People has
made a positive start towards return to work and job retention
but the national effect appears to be patchy.
7. Most disabled people would like work
in some capacity. This is the case even where those people are
already in receipt of incapacity benefit. What is key is that
the individual has an expectation of a return to work. In this
respect, the terminology around incapacity benefit might be unhelpful
as part of the overall desire to achieve return to work and job
retention. The New Beginnings Group is wary of proposing fundamental
changes to Incapacity Benefit per se which might affect genuine
entitlement; however, a key recommendation is that the terminology
is worthy of re-examination.
8. The concept of return to work as a continuum
is an important one, as it makes it clear that some individuals
may not ever be able to work sufficient hours to financially support
themselves fully. The benefits system needs to be flexible enough
to cope with people moving in and out of work, and be able to
adjust the benefit level according to the amount of work they
do. At present, it does not do so, and some disabled people can
be worse off in work than out of it.
9. In its recent Green Paper on Pensions:
Simplicity, Security and Choice; Working and Savings for Retirement,
the Department for Work and Pensions has demonstrated it is looking
to develop the principle of flexible working and is looking at
ways to extend working lives. The Green Paper talked about "introducing
measures to extend working lives". As part of this approach,
the New Beginnings Group believes this approach can also be adopted
more widely. If policy is developing to allow for flexible work
patterns this Inquiry might wish to explore just how a more flexible
approach towards returning to work for disabled people might fit
well into such overall policy guidelines.
THE ROLE
OF THE
PRIVATE SECTOR
AND EMPLOYERS
10. The private sector has a significant
role to play in helping to return disabled people to work but
we need to look at welfare incentives and, perhaps more importantly
the disincentives, around this. The Advisory Group members are
committed to diversity and believe firmly in the business case
for including disabled people amongst your workforce.
11. New Beginnings group member B&Q
believes that there are significant benefits to be gained from
aiming more targeted help at the individual enabling state benefits,
health and return to work solutions to be more effectively tailored.
12. Most members of the Group believe greater
communication of best practice will create a wider trickle down
effect across the country. Job Centre Plus might be the best mechanism
to co-ordinate such activity. UnumProvident has worked together
with the Department for Work and Pensions and Job Centre Plus
to create "The Knowledge" a best practice guide for
employers. New Beginnings would like to see more of this kind
of activity.
13. Group members led by the Disability
Alliance believe more significant help needs to be given to Small
and Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) business which do not have large-scale
human resources departments in order to help them achieve more
successful job retention outcomes.
14. In the experience of HSBC, full consultation
with the disabled employee is undertaken in order to take into
account their views and preferences on rehabilitation. This also
gives the opportunity to discuss possible options and the method
or methods to be adopted. This consultation process involves both
line managers and the Occupational Health team. The intention
is to offer important practical and psychological support to all
employees through consultation and the provision of employment
assessment, which will identify any reasonable adjustments possible.
15. Finally, New Beginnings believes the
Disability Discrimination Act 1995 is starting to have a positive
effect with larger organisations and there is significantly more
case precedent to adhere to. However, positive case studies still
emanate from a small number of employers and, usually, the same
businesses. More needs to be done to widen the impact of the Act.
MEMBERS OF
THE NEW
BEGINNINGS ADVISORY
GROUP INCLUDE:—
B & Q
| Business in the Community |
| CBI | The Cooperative Bank |
| Disability Alliance | Disability Rights Commission
|
| Employers Forum on Disability | HSBC
|
| The Institute of Directors | Scottish Power
|
| The Shaw Trust | Swiss Re |
| UnumProvident | Barclays Bank
|
| |
| 
