More disabled people are out of work and claiming disability-related benefits than when the Labour government came to power in 1997 (ONS, 1997, 2003a). At the same time, more disabled people are in work. This is possible because the overall number of people with long-term ill-health or a disability has grown to seven million and the employment rate of disabled people is hovering at just under 50% (ONS, 2002). The scale of the challenge of supporting more disabled people into work must not be under-estimated.

Since 1997, the number of people of working-age claiming benefits relating to unemployment has been on a consistent and sharp downward trend, reflecting the steady improvement in employment across the UK economy. However, the number of people of working-age claiming benefits due to sickness or disability has consistently risen and stood at over three million in May 2003 (ONS, 2003a). Analysis of the Labour Force Survey has suggested that well over one million disabled people want to work but are not working (DWP, 2002): this is the ‘missing million’. This figure is contestable but, as disability employment service providers will assert, there is little doubt that many more disabled people would like to work. Given the important impact that being in employment has on reducing poverty and social exclusion, this situation is good for neither disabled people, nor for the wider economy and society.

In this chapter, I assess the scale of the challenge in supporting more disabled people into work. I then seek to establish an understanding of what disability is and use this to consider recent trends in disability and work and how these might have exacerbated the challenge of supporting more disabled people into work. Following this, I examine how the government is attempting to tackle the issues and the prospects for greater numbers of disabled people entering work in the future. Finally, I suggest what a longer term; more ambitious strategy might look like, describing seven key elements of such a strategy.

The Achilles heel of Labour's welfare to work agenda

In 1998, the Labour government made its first significant attempt to improve the benefits system and move more people into work.