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4 February

Long term investment needed to get disabled people into work

Responding to recent comments about incapacity benefit (IB) made by government advisor David Freud, Employers' Forum on Disability (EFD) supports Freud's analysis that a long-term investment is required to improve the employment rate of disabled people.

EFD also welcomes Freud's analysis that it is "economically rational" to pay companies that place an IB claimant into a job that lasts at least three years, £62,000.

However, EFD reacts with caution over Freud's claims that less than a third of the 2.7 million people claiming IB are legitimate when the government's own figures have quoted less than 0.5% of IB claimants as being possibly fraudulent.

EFD would also question how right it is to focus on the level of fraud, when what we really have is an inefficient labour market that does not make it easy for people with disabilities from getting into or staying in employment.

EFD has long recognised that the mainstream labour market is not able to deliver disabled people into the right vacancy at the right time.

Employers from both the public and the private sector have invested in research to try and make it easier for them to navigate recruitment systems and employ disabled people.

EFD has recently welcomed government plans to reform the way that IB claimants are assessed and looks forward to working with the government in the future.

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Media enquiries, please contact:

Issy Rule
PR & Communications Coordinator
Employers' Forum on Disability press office
Email: issy.rule@employers-forum.co.uk
Telephone: 020 7403 3020

About Employers' Forum on Disability

Employers' Forum on Disability is the employers' organisation focused on disability as it affects employers and service providers.

With over 400 members, EFD represents organisations that employ around 25 per cent of the UK workforce.

Since its establishment in 1991, EFD has worked closely with government and other stakeholders, sharing best practice to make it easier to employ disabled people and serve disabled customers.