Work fund opens as campaigners say barriers remain

2 hours ago

Sarah Sanderson

News image — Disability rights campaigner, Mark Baggley, believes more awareness is needed within the workplace when it comes to recruiting disabled people

BBC Disability Rights Campaigner, Mark Baggley, is smiling into the camera. He's wearing glasses and a blue-green checkered shirt. He sits in his wheelchair in an office beside display boards featuring information about personal assistants and disability rights. The room contains office furniture, a window with vertical blinds, and a chair in the background. Visible text on one display board includes “Choices & Rights Personal Assistant Database. — Disability rights campaigner, Mark Baggley, believes more awareness is needed within the workplace when it comes to recruiting disabled people

As applications open for the government's £60m Pathways to Work (PtW) Innovation Fund, disabled people say major barriers to finding and staying in work remain.

The fund aims to reduce the disability employment gap by supporting new approaches to employment support.

But disabled people in Hull say funding alone will not remove the obstacles many still face when trying to find and stay in work.

Mark Baggley, a disability rights campaigner, said: "We need to get more employers to accept disabled people, either through apprenticeships or other job related schemes, to get them on that work ladder."

Baggley, 66, said he was told by a disability living allowance assessor that he would never work.

"I thought no way, I don't agree with you. And I've worked full-time for 40 years now."

He said one of the biggest challenges disabled people face is getting the support and workplace adjustments they need to do their jobs.

Under the Equality Act 2010, UK employers have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments to remove or reduce disadvantages faced by disabled workers and job applicants.

Baggley said some people may have to cover costs themselves before reclaiming support through the Access to Work scheme.

"If you apply for Access to Work, there's still a big delay with that. It can take several weeks to receive that funding."

Baggley, who uses taxis to commute, added: "For example, my taxi bill is roughly £1000 per month. I have to pay that out and then claim it back. Luckily, because I've been working a long time, I've been able to do that. But if I was starting work tomorrow, I wouldn't have a spare £1000."

Stephen Westerman, is a member of the Choices and Rights Disability Rights Coalition. He is smiling into the camera. He has short dark hair, a short beard and moustache. He's wearing glasses and a yellow T-shirt seated indoors, with noticeboards and office fixtures visible in the background. — Stephen Westerman, who has cerebral palsy, said he has been applying for paid work for nearly four years

Stephen Westerman, 38, from Hull, has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. After being made redundant, he retrained as an IT technician but said he had struggled to find paid work for almost four years.

He said employers were not always prepared for disabled applicants.

"I can't prove that I was discriminated against, but if I'm hitting so many walls, you do start to wonder."

According to the Department for Work and Pensions, 2.8 million people across the UK are out of work due to ill health, including 788,500 people in Yorkshire and the Humber.

The government said it wanted to test new ideas ranging from AI-powered job-matching tools and prosthetics to digital therapies.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: "Through our £3.5bn Pathways to Work employment support offer, we've seen that personalised support can be life-changing.

"Now we're calling on business, disabled people and charities to work with us, and bring forward their ideas to transform employment support."

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