Disability employment gap

I have an anxiety condition and am on long-term sick leave. I’m fortunate to receive a proportion of my former salary under my employer’s critical insurance policy. But I know others who receive benefits who are in the same position. I still get panic attacks and suffer from anxiety at times but at other times I can function well.  Getting a job could help my condition or it could make it worse but if I was to get one then I’d lose the entitlement to the income I receive. The same would be true if I received benefits (incl housing benefits) - I’d lose everything. And then my condition could get worse again so I couldn’t work. If benefits could be suspended or if there was some sort of transition, it could really help. It would also remove quite a big source of anxiety regarding getting a job and potentially moving forward.

There are two problems to overcome.  The pool of suitable jobs is likely to be smaller, but the real problem comes within that smaller pool.  People with poor mobility are likely to need more time to complete the work, which makes it chepaer to employ an able bodied person with equivalent qualifications.

There are numerous difficulties. Parking and general access to buildings even with 2 ticks employers are common along with a lack of understanding around reasonable adjustments. Some employers are also blinkered. I am faced with a bad weather contingency plan of having to take s days annual leave or a day without pay as they feel I can’t work from home because I have a few equipment adaptations. None of which I don’t already have at home anyway. Yet my able bodied colleagues are actively encouraged to work from home.

Discrimination in the workplace exists. Due to a lack of understanding of laws. As for promotion prospects they are virtually non existent if you have a disability especially if you’ve needed to take sick leave.

Clear guidance and laws are required including in local government authorities with a consistent approach.

As a disabled employee you don’t have the support to challenge this as you are written off the first time your disability effects your work or attendance.

Being under 7 specialists over 4 hospitals I was criticised when I lost track of my upcoming appointments. That was a mayors office employer!

More needs to be done with a greater understanding being given boring routine tasks non stop tend to make you switch off yet that’s all you’re given as employers won’t allow you the chance to flex your brain.

It will be good if disability should also cover anyone with dyslexia.  Lot of them need computer to write, spell check and or a reader for test condition as they have very slow writing and reading speed but are very capable otherwise.

As a society we should make provision for subsidise travel for these people as they are likely to be low wage earners and would not afford normal public transport travel cost.

They should also be on low council tax for the same reason.

 moving around town and accessing public transport it's definitely an issue. there are lots of buildings without lifts and not anyone can afford to make the necessary building works to make their houses step free.

remote work should incentivated more

A marvellous example of a Company giving equal opportunities to disabled people is Chickenshed Theatre. Check them out and learn from their work and experience

I used to work with a consultancy that provided offsite services of Software QA's who were autistic and the majority had a learning disability. They were great at following steps of testing software (which at the time wasn't feasible to automate) that some would consider long, monotonous and boring. They were able to speed through the steps much quicker than anyone we had onsite. In fact I never met any of the employees because they were always offsite and provided their work/communication electronically.

The point that I am making is, this consultancy was able to leverage their employees (who happened to have a learning disability) strengths and provide different methods for their social interactions in the workplace. I think companies like this who, whilst aren't a charity, but are doing good should maybe get like an incentive, or grant. 

People who are disabled wonder how they are going to get to a place if work whether they could manage there and will people laugh at them behind their backs accuse them if something goes wrong feel inadequate for the work place knowing they may struggle - there are so many obstacles for these people and they need encouraging especially with help getting to the place of work - if there are meetings at city hall about this i would love to attend and join in discussion.   Jackie

I am a wheelchair user. I used to travel in my  car with my manual wheelchair in the passenger seat. However parking was a major problem as there was no designated disabled parking. Even if I managed to find an ordinary parking space I used to have to change that space every 3 hours. The buildings I worked in (Local Education Authority) had stairs, as did many of the buildings I had to visit as part of my job. I ended up missing vital meetings and, feeling side-lined or a nuisance. I quit the job because I was, through no fault of my own, unreliable. Working from home was possible for IT tasks but isolating. Simple things like getting lunch were difficult and no priority was given to people with mobity problems so by the time I managed to get to the sandwich line most items were gone. 

The lack of wheelchair friendly parking and accessible buildings was a major factor in stopping that work.  It was not discussed at my interview and, had I realised that the majority of buildings I would need to access were not equipped to include me I would have turned the job down. I do wonder how mobilty impaired and other people limited by their disability are able to work in schools.

For anyone with a disability that affects mobility (and parents pushing a pram), using public transport is a challenge. 

The lack of accessible access to most stops in the London underground and rail stations is disappointing, especially when compared with other european capitals.

The argument that the London underground is old does not cut it. If we continue to blame it on the age but put no effort towards starting on fixing it, we will be in the same place in 5 years' time. It's the same argument as for climatisation on trains. No city had air conditioning on underground services in the 70's and this was introduced gradually, so most have it now. London has always been stuck with the "it will be too expensive" and we are still in the same place.

Close the lacuna in the law which allows business to get around the law to provide equal access.  For example, a new retail centre opened near to me a few years ago.  A brand new, high building was built and Starbucks took up residence.  Starbucks then added a second floor inside the building for customers but did not add a lift.  This was after the Equality Act 2010.  I complained to the London council about this as it is a clear breach of equality legislation which demands that reasonable provision be made for people who have difficulty using stairs.  The council replied to me that had the second floor been included in the original planning application then they would probably have obliged Starbucks to include a lift.  However, because the floor was added after the building was built, there was no obligation for Starbucks to include a lift, so the council could not intervene.  This is outrageous.  Given that the building was originally built high enough to accommodate an additional floor, one can't help but wonder if adding another floor was Starbucks' intention all along, but by doing it this way, there were able to avoid additional planning requirements.  It is very wrong and the law needs to be changed so that a business has to add accessbility by default, unless they have good, provable reason otherwise.  I also believe that currently, councils are too willing to accept businesses' excuses for not providing access, based on cost etc.

There are many challenges facing disabled people when looking for work - the attitude of employers, whether they will make reasonable adjustment, whether all elements of the role are necessary, whether qualifications are actually needed for the role.

The support disabled people need, is good personalised support appropriate to their needs, and the needs of the role.

Supported employment charities are an excellent way to boost employment rate for disabled people (especially those with learning disabilities). Full disclosure, I run a supported employment charity for people with learning disabilities, so I might be slightly biased here...

Supported Internships are a good way to improve disability employment rates for young people with learning disabilities.

From conversations I've had with people who have varying disabilities, the issue which keeps cropping up is a strong feeling of a lack of independence with regards to mobility. They have voiced their frustrations about always having to rely on others to help them get around the city, and don't always want to be chauffeured around in taxis. I believe that if the Mayor of London and TfL presses on with building a network of protected cycle lanes, it will be a massive benefit to users of mobility scooters, wheelchairs and other adapted/assisted transport types such as hand-cycles who also use cycle infra to get around. Conversations about car parking and access to taxis need to be halted in favour of giving disabled people true mobility independence.   

as a disabled person myself, i have had to resort to becoming self employed in 2004, as the difficulties getting to work proved too much, similar to the parking blue bays discussed already i had similar, i couldn't get to work unless i drove, and finding parking was impossible, so i went from going out to work, to working from home until i wasn't well enough to even do that!.Now i am better, still disabled, finding new employment with a decent wage and benefits is IMPOSSIBLE

I have been trying to help a young man who is Autistic.   He has a really great CV, having obtained a degree in graphic design.

He has undertaken 3 sessions of work experience from which people have commended him on his reliability, quality of work etc.

but he is becoming depressed and despondent about ever achieving a job.   Because of his disability, he will always present

in a different way.    My thoughts are that more assistance could be offered to people on the spectrum and employers better

informed of the quality of work that can be obtained from somebody that just presents in a somewhat different way.

I should think that maybe the Mayor of London might promote this. 

I you expect disable to work as much as not disabled why you give them benefits? Maybe they are not able to works, hens the name. Some may be able to do some jobs but not all. Giving people job just to fill the gap is continuing the trend with "minorities" who are priotize at getting job just in the name of "equality" to meet the numbers.
Instead of focusing on employng disabled you should focus on thi 78% of employment in London. If this figure includes children and retired people it's fantastic! But not realistic. What you wanted to say is 78% of working age people. What means 22% is unemployed and this is terrible. You should focus on employing those who should work, not diabled.

Perhaps  as previous person said that disabled parking should be reserved. However if the person does not turn up for work it should be made available to any disabled person.

  Regarding help for disabled people it would depend on the disability and the  amount  of assistance required. Sometimes it may not be possible to assist but offered to work from home if the person skill is required with only occasional visit to the official place of work.

I retired in 2016, but before that worked at Southwark Council's HQ in Tooley Street. As a mobility-impaired blue badge driver my major issue was parking. Under pressure from disabled staff they created six disabled parking pays on an adjacent road, but this was woefully inadequate for a building housing 2500 staff. On top of that, these were just standard street-bays, not restricted to staff. So every morning's journey to work was an anxious one, not knowing whether there'd be anywhere to park. Sometimes I was obliged to work from home - this is good in some ways, but deprived me of the social aspect of work, in a team whose company I enjoyed, which was itself a significant factor in giving me job satisfaction. Blue-badge parking provision - particularly in central locations like this, just across the street from City Hall - must be provided at a level that can sustain a proportionate number of disabled drivers, and it must be possible for disabled parking spaces to be reserved for disabled drivers.