DWP rejects disabled job seekers over ill health

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been accused of using a screening process which filters out applicants with any health problems.

The Disability News Service (DNS) reported that the DWP is using a private sector employment health screening service once they’ve offered someone a job.

The service consists of a seven-page long questionnaire, called Fit4Jobs, which provides the DWP with a comprehensive picture of an applicant’s health.

If an applicant doesn’t score enough points for the ‘health qualifying rate’, their job offer can be withdrawn, meaning the DWP is finding a way not to hire disabled people whilst simultaneously pushing disabled people into work.

The DWP didn’t even try to deny the questionnaire is being used to weed out disabled employees. A spokesperson told the DNS:

The Fit4Jobs questionnaire is a standard pre-employment health declaration, completed by successful external candidates to ensure any workplace adjustments are in place from day one.

However, the department also hypocritically said:

We are committed to ensuring disabled people and those with long-term health conditions get the right support at work.

This is a ridiculous statement to make when they clearly don’t want disabled people in their own department. The DWP didn’t even try to deny the questionnaire is being used to weed out disabled employees.

It’s the DWP, not the secret service

The questionnaire probes into all aspects of someone’s medical history from past medications to whether they’ve ever broke a bone or have other health conditions. This includes whether someone has “ever suffered from any mental health conditions or if they have any issues with their stomach, kidneys or skin”.

It’s ridiculously thorough for a DWP job, to be honest. You have to tell them about allergies, whether you’ve had Covid, smoke, drink, or take drugs and even about your diet and exercise. It also drills into immune conditions and whether an applicant has ever had two or more weeks off work due to their health.

The service is provided by the People Asset Management (PAM) group, who then use an algorithm to score the answers. Applicants must score over 80% to achieve the ‘health qualifying rate’ and be regarded as suitable for the role.

The questionnaire is apparently to help employers “identify any risks that could prevent an employee from undertaking their new role” and ensure reasonable adjustments are provided.

However, a DWP work coach told John Pring at DNS that applicants would need to answer ‘no’ to most questions to pass the screening process.

They added that the scoring system “appears to reject candidates on the basis of health, disability and age”.

Referring to what the work coach said, Pring wrote:

They said that it was hypocritical of DWP ministers to call endlessly for more people with health conditions to seek employment, while using a service that prevents many of them working for the department.

As hypocritical as ever

It’s beyond fucking hypocritical of the DWP to exclude disabled applicants whilst it’s pushing the ‘economically active’ narrative of disabled people not wanting to work.

At a time when the DWP wants to force disabled people into work by any means, it’s showing how little they value disabled employees. But this is no surprise from a department that has lost more employment tribunals for disability discrimination in the past five years than any other UK employer.

The DWP is also quietly scrapping Access to Work which aims to support disabled people in the workplace. How are disabled people supposed to believe the department actually wants to support them into work when they don’t even want to employ disabled people themselves?

This just proves once again how little the government actually wants to help disabled people into employment. What the DWP really cares about is saving money and it would rather continue to demonise disabled people than fix its crooked department.

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