Ministers unveil ‘right to try’ plan to help disabled people find work

The government has unveiled its plan to allow disabled people to try work without fear of losing their benefits, but campaigners warn the policy does not go far enough to tackle hostile workplaces.

Legislation laid before parliament on Thursday will mean that people who start work or volunteering no longer automatically face a benefit reassessment, a prospect disabled people said was holding them back from trying to gain employment.

The government said people were being “stranded in the benefits system” and afraid of trying work through fear of losing their support.

Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, said: “We are doing this as a reassurance to people, to allay their fears, because it has come through really clearly that people would like to work but the fear of losing benefits is holding them back.

“We’ve also applied it to volunteering because that very often is a crucial first step to getting back towards work and people have not been doing it because they are worried. But I think we are going to have to do more beyond what we’re putting in this legislation.”

The new “right to try” policy, which will come into force at the end of the month, will apply to unemployed claimants of employment and support allowance, personal independence payment and the universal credit health element.

Disability campaigners welcomed the news but warned it would not be enough to tackle the reasons disabled people struggled to gain work.

James Taylor, a director at the disability charity Scope, said the policy was “a step in the right direction and could remove a real barrier for disabled people who want to take up work”.

However, he added: “The odds are stacked against disabled people when it comes to finding suitable work. From inaccessible workplaces and inflexible jobs, to poor support and negative attitudes from employers.

“The government must go further, and invest in voluntary and personalised employment support for disabled people ready to try work. And rule out further cuts to benefits, which only push disabled people deeper into poverty, not jobs.”

Research by Timewise, a flexible working nonprofit organisation, found that 2.5% of those who were economically inactive because of long-term sickness or disability returned to work each year, and more than half of these jobs lasted fewer than four months.

“These dire statistics show how important a secure right to try is, where those trying work are guaranteed the same level of support they had before if things don’t work out,” said Mikey Erhardt of Disability Rights UK.

He added disabled people wanted more reassurance from government that the right to try would not mean they returned to the system as new claimants or were forced to apply again.

The announcement comes at the same time as a controversial cut to the health element of universal credit, which is being halved and then frozen for new claimants unless they meet stricter criteria.

“The system as it was before was forcing people to aspire to be classified as too unwell to work,” said Timms at a visit to a jobcentre in Walthamstow, north-east London.

Staff there said people had been getting their work capability assessment done earlier in order to still qualify for the higher amount.

Disability campaigners said the cut would punish people at a time when they were already struggling financially.

“It’s clear that in a time of great economic uncertainty, we are seeing a doubling down on ideas that fundamentally don’t work for disabled people,” said Erhardt. “For too long, successive governments have seen social security not as a safety net designed to support people in times of need, but as a threat they can use to push disabled people into the job market. This approach has always been nonsensical.

“These new changes to universal credit health mean hundreds of thousands of disabled people will experience yet another cut in living standards.”