Disabled people,New Labour,benefits and work

In its dealings with disabled people, New Labour has shifted the policy emphasis from benefits to work. A tightening of access to social security has been matched by the introduction of new employment-orientated programmes. However, closer scrutiny of these initiatives suggests that while the government has acknowledged the impacts of environmental and social barriers to work, it continues substantially to rely on traditional, medically informed, views of impairment and incapacity. As a result the policy focus remains, for the most part, at the level of the disabled claimant. This concentration on individuals as opposed to institutional performance forms a stark contrast with the government's approach in other sectors, especially the public sector, where attention has been centred less on the service user than on the regular and detailed measurement of institutional structures and outputs. The article therefore concludes that to redress the balance a more rigorous audit of private sector employment practices is needed if the government is to further its aim of social inclusion for disabled people and other excluded groups.