Exploitation of Disabled Workers is ' National Problem'

Jill Goble writes that a recent article in Community Care magazine by Helen McCormack reveals a national problem of employers using disability of workers to pay below minimumum wage. The article followed hot on the heels of a Department of Health and Department of Work and Pensions joint report published earlier this month which warned that a “worrying” number of employment providers - especially local authorities and those in the voluntary sector - were paying people with learning difficulties less than the minimum wage of £5.05 an hour.

The Department of Health has also just published ' Reward and Recognition , its guide to the principles and practice of payment and reimbursment to service users.

What comes across very clearly from both Government documents is that political posturing and bureaucracy have triumphed over the individual needs of people with disabilities and common sense.

Even Mind has ignored the cruel ' scissors effect ' many service users on benefits now face around volunteering or engaging in therapeutic activities or work as the sharpening of both scissor blades, - DWP monitoring payments and reimbursments to service users, DoH (through NIMHE) medicalising and pushing DWP's aims - is clearly designed to cut through any hint of 'dependency culture' as part of Government policy to get more people, whatever their actual circumstances and needs, off benefits and into full time mainstream jobs.

Unfortunately this also hacks through support as we have just seen with the Surrey & Borders Partnership Trust snipping away its garden centre workers payments not to pay them the minimum wage but to get them to work for nothing and itself in line with Government policy.

The mental healthcare agenda is now being driven by the DWP and the attitude of services and the MH charity sector seems to be, 'well we've been exploiting service users anyway so let the devil take the hindmost.'