Steve Rotheram – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2015-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to close the pay gap between disabled workers and other workers.

Justin Tomlinson

The Government is committed to ensuring that all disabled people have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations. Work is an important part of this, which is why we committed to halving the disability employment gap in our manifesto – we want to ensure that many more disabled people who can and want to work have that opportunity.

Equality Act 2010 protects disabled people (and other groups) from discrimination at work, including unequal pay (in relation to the disabled person’s gender) and less favourable treatment, which may require the employer to provide a reasonable adjustment.

The National Living Wage – which will ensure that all low wage workers, including those with disabilities, can take a greater share of the gains from growth – will come into force from 1 April 2016.

Disability Confident works with an increasing number of employers to promote the benefits of employing disabled people, encouraging good practice, challenging prejudicial attitudes, increasing understanding of disability, removing barriers, and helping to ensure that disabled people have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations.

Access to Work provides support above and beyond employers’ reasonable adjustments. Every year, Access to Work supports tens of thousands of disabled workers to enter or retain employment and progress in their careers.