Untapped potential
Disabled people face barriers in training, education and employment - removing them would drive economic growth, writes Louie Freeman-Bassett
The UK has faced a productivity problem for decades. According to the Productivity Institute, we have been below the European average since around 2010. Despite some recent positive signs, low productivity remains the core cause of our sluggish economic growth. Labour made growth the single most important part of its offer to the British electorate at the last general election, and has continued to highlight its importance throughout its time in power. And while external shocks resulting from conflicts around the world have negatively impacted the UK economy, at the next election, the government will ultimately be judged on economic growth and the sense of stability and hope that stem from it.
In such dire economic and political conditions, you might assume the government would want to pull on all levers available to get the economy firing again. But measures that help disabled people are mostly portrayed as a drag on growth.
This is, of course, political. A tough stance on welfare has become a rite of passage for politicians seeking to appear serious and prudent with public finances. But it misses a golden opportunity to unlock the potential of the disabled workforce – potential that we believe is currently lying dormant across the country.
The reasons for this underutilisation are often systematic failings throughout the course of a disabled person’s education, training and employment. The result is frequently poorer life chances and significantly lower living standards.
Let us start with schooling. A review by the Department for Education last year found that slower progress is common among pupils with all types of special educational needs and disabilities (Send). Just 24 per cent of Send pupils attain key stage 2 reading, writing and maths expectations compared with 74 per cent of those with no identified special educational needs. Additional research we conducted in 2021 found that 46 per cent of disabled people remained undiagnosed throughout their time atschool.
The government’s recent Send reforms deserve some credit. We welcomed the increases in support for mainstream schools, colleges and early years education –which amounted to more than £4bn – alongside 60,000 additional specialist school places and £200m for teacher training. Yet gaps remain, particularly around EHCPs and ensuring the principle of inclusion.
Unfortunately, problems persist into the world of work. Here, frustratingly, we find policies in place which we believe to be effective but are in the process of being dismantled by the government. Access to Work, for instance, is the flagship programme designed to help disabled people get a job or stay in work by offering workplace equipment, support towards travel where public transport is inaccessible, or an interpreter or support worker. Our recent research found that it helps keep upto 50,000 disabled people in work and is highly cost-effective, saving the taxpayer nearly £70m. Despite this, there have been reports in recent months of unofficial changes to Access to Work guidance and a sharp spike in cuts to people’s support. The National Audit Office estimates there are more than 32,000 outstanding payments, which is leaving many customers in serious financial distress.
Employers are also failing to maximise the benefit from tools available to them to better support disabled people in work. Occupational health (OH) services, for example, are meant to help disabled employees stay in work by enabling OH professionals to advise on adjustments, manage absences and support returns to work. But they are often perceived as costly and administratively burdensome by employers, which limits uptake. We have previously proposed that the government can better incentivise employers by ‘super-deducting’ occupational health by at least 110 per cent for two years.
Not all of these issues around disability and employment can be laid at the door of the government. Deeply ingrained stigma within business culture serves to hold disabled people back from leadership positions that would otherwise likely help to reform the culture they operate in. Last year, we spoke to a range of disabled business leaders who echoed this sentiment, highlighting the significant loss to individual businesses from failing to recognise the talents of disabled people.
Laid out like this, it is easy to see the hurdles disabled people face throughout their lives that reinforce systemic barriers and reduce life chances. Simply removing some of the barriers we have outlined here would make a significant difference to the lives of many disabled people, providing more secure and more meaningful employment while also boosting the economy. This government, and those that follow, should learn this lesson – and recognise that improving opportunities for disabled people is a secret weapon in the drive for greater economic growth
*This article was first published in June 2026.
