Over 2,000 more disabled people got the support they needed to get or keep their job, compared with this time last year, recent official figures have shown.
Around 22,760 people were being supported through Access to Work between April and June this year – an increase of 10% on the same period last year.
Access to Work provides financial help towards the extra costs faced by disabled people at work, such as support workers, specialist aids and equipment and travel to work support.
The employment rates for disabled people have increased gradually over the years from 44.5% in 2002 to 48.9% in 2012. However, there remains a gap of almost 30% between the employment rate of disabled and non-disabled people. If disabled people’s employment rate matched that of the rest of the population an extra 2 million disabled people would be in work.
The government recently hosted the first Disability Employment Conference, which was attended by more than 300 employees, including 35 FTSE100 companies and disability organisations to tackle attitudes within the workplace which could prevent disabled people from fulfilling their potential.
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