Minister for Murdering Disabled People Esther McVey has released a press release today boasting that less disabled people have been helped into work than at any point since 2007.
Murdering McVey refers to regional figures for the Government’s Access To Work scheme, which show that even in large cities such as Leeds or Glasgow, barely a few hundred people are being helped by the scheme.
The latest official figures for the Government’s Access To Work scheme were released in January (PDF), and did not merit a DWP Press Release. It is easy to understand why. The figures cover the six month period between April and September 2012 and show that the number of disabled people helped into jobs has plummeted since this Government weren’t elected.
At its peak in 2009/2010, the Access To Work programme, which helps pay for specialist equipment for disabled workers, helped 16,540 new disabled people into employment.
By 2011/12 this numbers had dropped to 9,980. The latest figures show that just 4,960 people had benefited from the scheme in the first six months of the latest period – meaning if such pitiful performance continues this will be the worst year yet.
This is despite the promises from Ministers that the thousands of sacked Remploy workers would find new jobs through Access To Work.
Even during the worst of the recession 14,010 new people were helped into employment via Access To Work, almost a third higher then the recent dire statistics. The latest figures suggest one of two things. The Tories have either broken the Access To Work scheme or despite the manipulated unemployment figures there are no fucking jobs. Of course both of these things are quite likely to be true.
The Void
