Chancellor blames poor productivity blamed on disabled people.
At Wednesday’s Treasury Select Committee Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond MP, in answer to a question about the cause of poor productivity implied that the UK’s poor productivity levels were the result of disabled people in the workforce.
He said:
‘It is almost certainly the case that by increasing participation in the workforce, including higher participation by marginal groups and very high levels of engagement in the workforce, for example disabled people – something we should be extremely proud of – may have had an impact on overall productivity measurements.’
His comments have caused outrage amongst disabled people.
Chief Executive of DR UK Kamran Mallick said:
‘This is an extraordinary comment to make and an insult to the hundreds of thousands of hard working disabled people. He has given the green light to the erroneous view of many employers that it is not worth employing disabled people because they are less productive.
There is no evidence to support this view.
His remarks call into question the seriousness of the Government’s commitment to the inclusion of disabled people in its recently published industrial strategy or the stated intention of getting 1 million more disabled people into employment.
Instead of insulting us the Chancellor should withdraw his inaccurate comments and engage with disabled people and our organisations on ways to ensure the many untapped talents of disabled people looking for work are brought into our workforce to the benefit of all of us’.