Responding to a Panorama expose on the Work Programme, Richard Hawkes, Chief Executive of disability charity Scope, said:

“The Government’s fitness for work test is utterly broken. Now we see the same toxic approach applied to disabled people in the Work Programme, the Governments flagship approach to moving disabled people off benefits and into work.

“Referring to disabled people as LTBs – lying, thieving bastards, is completely unacceptable, yet sadly demonstrates just how the benefit scrounger rhetoric has influenced attitudes towards disability, even amongst those employed to help them.

“The fact is the Work Programme is failing to deliver for disabled people.

"We know disabled people want to work but face multiple barriers such as a lack of skills and experience, confidence and even negative attitudes from some employers.

“The group of disabled people who are furthest from a job – those claiming Employment and Support Allowance – are receiving the least support and therefore least likely to be referred to the disability specialists.

“Disabled people account for only one in five of the total number of people who’ve found work through the Work Programme.

"Disabled people need tailored and targeted support to find a job and the Work Programme just doesn't offer them this.

"We desperately need the Government to re-think its approach if we want to see more disabled people in work in the future."

Notes

For more information please contact the Scope press office on 020 7619 7200.

In the Summer of 2012, both Panorama and Dispatches broadcast documentaries revealing the flaws in the Goverment's fitness to work test, the Work Capability Assessment.

In November 2012, the Government published figures of the number of disabled people on the Work Programme who had actually found a job.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lldrc

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/britain-on-the-si...

http://www.scope.org.uk/news/work-programme