Sadiq Khan urged to boost disabled employment as report reveals huge gap in third of London boroughs

Research found nearly a third of London boroughs saw the gap between non-disabled adults in work and disabled adults in work increase since 2005
Tim P. Whitby
Kate Proctor1 May 2018
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Sadiq Khan was today urged to help disabled people find jobs as a report warned of a huge loss of potential to London’s economy.

Research by the Social Market Foundation found nearly a third of London boroughs saw the gap between non-disabled adults in work and disabled adults in work increase since 2005.

It discovered that the disability employment gap in London was 38.5 per cent. It is higher for those with mental health problems — 47.5 per cent.

The gap is the difference between the employment rate for the non-disabled population (85 per cent) and for disabled people (46.5 per cent).

The report found 12 boroughs where the gap widened between 2005 and 2015. It singled out four with an acute difference: Hillingdon (50.86), Bromley (49.34), Croydon (43.2) and Sutton (38.28). Report author Matthew Oakley, a former economic adviser to the Treasury, urged the Mayor to create a disability employment taskforce, with targets to get more disabled people into jobs.

“Disabled employment rates are still really, really low even in areas performing well,” he said. “That’s a huge loss of potential to the economy.” He said the gap for people with mental health problems was “pretty concerning”. He praised the Mayor’s work with employers through the Good Work Standard. It was not clear why some boroughs had seen the gap widen, he added.

The lowest disability gaps in London were in Richmond, (19 per cent) Lewisham (20) and Merton (30).

About 370,000 disabled Londoners are out of work. The Social Market Foundation suggests Mr Khan should use cash from the UK’s Shared Prosperity Fund to set up projects to get people into work. This stream is intended to replace European Structural Investment Funds after Britain leaves the EU.

Nationally, the disability employment gap was 41.5 per cent. The think tank suggests the Government should set up a £1 billion fund to help those on Employment and Support Allowance.

City Hall cited the Mayor’s economic development strategy, Good Work Standard, and soon-to-be-unveiled equality, diversity and inclusion strategy, as examples of action.

Croydon said it is the London borough with the highest proportion of disabled residents: “We run many schemes that support them into work, including recruitment fairs, supported internships and a jobs brokerage service.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in