People with disabilities who receive work-related benefits may be required to look for work as part of receiving their benefits. The Government contracts specialist disability employment providers to run programmes to help them. Some people with autism can be furthest away from finding work and consequently take longer and need ongoing support to help them find an appropriate placement.
What we’re doing
Work Choice is an example of such a programme and is designed specifically for those who face substantial barriers to work and for whom other programmes are not appropriate. Through our work, we have pushed for a much longer period of support to find work than was originally proposed, which has been increased from the proposed three months to nine months. Workplace support for those that need it has been extended from a maximum of five years to indefinite support, and we also secured the inclusion of autism in the guidance to bidders for Work Choice contracts.
We still remain concerned that providers are unlikely to deliver support to the individuals with more complex needs because contracts are designed so that providers receive the same fee for each individual they support into work. Since individuals with complex needs often require more costly support to find work, there is little incentive to support them. We are looking at different ways of tackling this.