Abstract
In 2008 the Employment and Support Allowance was introduced in the UK as the income replacement benefit for disabled people. In this paper we focus upon the reasons for its introduction, the notions of disability and the two main ideas – capability and personalization – that provide the framework for its operation. The paper engages with the arguments put forward by the UK's government that the Employment and Support Allowance will enable disabled people to access paid work in greater numbers. The paper argues that Employment and Support Allowance will become part of a disabling employment architecture because it does little to improve the human capital of disabled people and is concerned with getting them into entry-level employment that is part of the ‘low pay, no pay’ cycle.
Highlights
Governments around the world have in recent years been concerned with the numbers of disabled people receiving out-of-work benefits and the length of time that they receive them for
The Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was introduced in the UK as a measure to get more disabled people into paid work as a means of addressing political concerns of the government Á for example, reducing poverty among children and older people Á and, rather paternalistically, for the good of disabled people
The ESA was portrayed by the Labour government, something that the Coalition government has accepted, as a policy that is essentially enabling for disabled people; enabling them to enjoy greater equality with able-bodied people by giving them greater access to paid employment
Summary
Governments around the world have in recent years been concerned with the numbers of disabled people receiving out-of-work benefits and the length of time that they receive them for. The response of governments has been similar To varying degrees these have involved a combination of tightening the eligibility criteria for the receipt of out-of-work benefits and the development of policies that are supposed to help ‘support’ disabled people in securing paid employment (see Dingeldey 2007; OECD 2010). # 2013 Nordic Network on Disability Research based on the stigmatization of certain groups as being economically burdensome; ‘welfare-to-work’ policies as opposed to investment in increasing human capital, and low value, and increasingly means-tested, out-of-work benefits, access to which is governed by toughening qualifying criteria (for example, see Garthwaite 2011; Houston and Lindsay 2010; Patrick 2011a, 2011b; Piggott and Grover 2009; Spicker 2011). The paper concludes with discussion of whether the ESA might be interpreted as being enabling or disabling
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