Benefits or jobs?
Many disabled people are unable to do paid work because their disability prevents them. However, for those who are able to work, their disability may still prevent them getting work, because of the myths surrounding the issue of employing disabled people.
20% of the working population are disabled, and eight out of 10 disabled people acquired their disability during the course of their working life so it’s not just about employing people who are already disabled, it’s also about what to do with existing employees who become disabled.
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There are many misconceptions about disabled people, probably driven by the overwhelmingly negative image of them in the mainstream media. The reality is somewhat different, and interestingly, company surveys consistently conclude that organisations who have successfully employed disabled people are keen to employ more.
Learning to understand the commercial potential of having a positive stance towards disability is always a good starting point for helping people to understand the benefits of employing disabled staff. There are more than eight million people in the UK who are disabled with spending power in excess of £40billion. That’s an awful lot of money, and by employing disabled people, understanding disability and generally having a proactive attitude towards it, it could be hugely rewarding to a company’s bottom line.
And staying on the money side of things for a bit, it is much much cheaper to retain a staff member who has become disabled than try to recruit someone new. The Post Office estimates that medically retiring an employee costs around £80,000. Not to mention that if you were to become involved in litigation with regard to a disability claim, the average payout under the DDA last year at an employment tribunal was £13,000.
But isn’t employing (or retaining) disabled people a risk? Aren’t they always off sick, or causing accidents? Studies again show that disabled people in work tend to have better attendance records, stay with employers longer and have fewer accidents at work
Well, OK, but what about all the huge costs involved with adaptations? 45% of employers think that they won’t be able to afford to employ a disabled person – they feel that making adjustments for them will be costly and difficult. In actual fact, only 4% of reasonable adjustments made to facilitate employing a disabled person cost money at all, and with grants and expert support available from a variety of agencies, including the Government, the average cost of adjustments is £184 per disabled employee. A drop in the ocean if this is genuinely the best person for the job.
Shockingly, I have heard employers say that ‘disabled people have nothing to offer’ – I would say, get in touch with the facts, not the myths, and try telling that to Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell and David Blunkett…
What do you think? Benefit or job?
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About JaneHattonJane Hatton helps people with disabilities find a job through an Even Break. If you are an employer who is looking to recruit a talented individual from a Jane, then take a look at how you can here
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7 Responses to Benefits or jobs?
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I believe that people with chronic non-terminal diseases are also discriminated against. In my own recent post about cancer, I explained that I’m self-employed which means I am able to work despite my illness, with no employer to answer to. But for people in employment who get cancer, MS, diabetes etc. there aren’t such easy answers. All the same, in the majority of cases having a chronic disease does not mean that you are incapable of working normally.
For people seeking new employment after diagnosis with a chronic disease, the picture is equally muddy. Jane, do you feel that anti-discrimination regulations regarding people with obvious disabilities works as well for people like us? And speaking as a diversity expert, would you recommend to your clients that to employ people with a chronic disease such as I have described is as good an idea as it is to hire people with, say, bio-mechanically or neurologically related disabilities?
Twitter: SuzeStMWrites
I worry about people like me who, although technically not disabled, are suffering from chronic (non-terminal) diseases, e.g. cancer, diabetes, MS, etc. I am lucky in that I am self-employed but of course the vast majority of us are not. Speaking as a diversity expert, how do you advise your clients on the pros and cons of employing people like us?
Twitter: SuzeStMWrites
Some employers and the government for that matter do not always realise that keeping people on benefits takes away that persons dignity and it is worse if that is done because someone is disabled
yes, it cannot be easy for people with terminal illnesses Suze,
In fairness Ida, I didn't mean people with terminal illnesses – that's a different story altogether. I meant people with chronic diseases, i.e. being managed on a long term basis.
Twitter: SuzeStMWrites
The definition of “disability” is quite broad, and under the law a disabled person is defined as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. This can include cancer, MS and so on, depending on the effects on the individual.
My advice woiuld be the same – first find the person with the best fit for the job. If adjustments are needed to accommodate their disability or condition, establish whether those are reasonable in terms of the context of your business. Often no adjustments will be necessary, or will be easily accommodated.
Twitter: evenbreak
I don't want to sound like an advocate of the American Dream, but I think giving people the opportunity to work is the important thing. Whether people take the opportunity is another story.
I have had a great deal of experience in a former role in employing disabled people, providing services and advocating on behalf of disabled people. As an employer, I think it is your duty to advertise jobs in such a way that disabled people can make up their own minds whether to apply or not. There's no need to be afraid of some scary Big Brother figure making you employ blind people as bus drivers – they won't apply! People aren't stupid just because they're disabled! So if you specify that your job involves maintaining a bell-tower with 200 steps, any wheelchair user who applies is just doing it to be controversial and won't win an industrial tribunal case when he isn't appointed.
The other side of this is that disability hits people in a wide variety of ways and disabled people shouldn't be forced to work, particularly if it means a drastic change in the jobs they can do. If you have been used to a well-paid, heavy industrial job as a skilled engineer and you lose a leg – and even more so if you lose your leg whilst doing your job – I think it's quite unreasonable to say that the firm can offer you work operating the switchboard on a low wage and expect you to take it. The same switchboard job might be a wonderful opportunity for a visually-impaired school-leaver as the first step on the employment ladder, but is nothing less than an insult to a mature skilled worker.
I won't go into other aspects of disability here except to post a link which I hope will work, to a picture of Shannon Murray, Debenham's new model:
http://images.ok.co.uk/dynamic/32/451×567/19107…