Amidst the backdrop of rising economic inactivity due to disability and record long-term sickness, it is important to analyse the challenges disabled people face in the world of work. Disabled people encounter barriers to entering, staying, and progressing in work. This is illustrated by the persistently high disability employment gap, which is currently just under 30%. However, even when disabled people do move into employment, new Work Foundation research finds that they are 1.5 times more likely than non-disabled workers to be in severely insecure work. As of April-June 2022, more than one in four disabled workers were in severely insecure work (1.3 million). Our new Work Foundation report, The Disability Gap: Insecure Work in the UK, explores the underlying drivers of this insecurity gap. THE GAP ACROSS OCCUPATIONS Our analysis found that insecure work is concentrated in routine and semiroutine occupations, such as cleaners, waiters, and hairdressers, as well as amongst small employers and own account workers. These occupations are also where disabled workers are over-represented relative to nondisabled workers, but even within these occupations, disabled workers are more likely than non-disabled workers to experience insecure work. For example, 60% of disabled workers who are small employers or freelancers find themselves in severely insecure work. Disabled entrepreneurs can face unique challenges. They might have trouble accessing credit because of their incomplete work histories, or work fluctuating hours that might worsen their financial insecurity. While being self-employed is often inherently an insecure form of work, it can give disabled people the freedom and flexibility to manage their own condition while staying in the world of work. Too often, disabled workers face a trade-off between opting into insecure work to manage their health condition and progressing in their careers. It is incumbent on policymakers and employers to remove this tension between security and flexibility. Pippa Stacey, a freelancer who manages a chronic illness, spoke to the BBC at the launch of our report. 48 |
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