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DWP’s JobcentrePlus failure on access is ‘unacceptable’, say MPs
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The failure of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to ensure that the employment services it provides to disabled people through JobcentrePlus are accessible is “simply unacceptable”, according to a cross-party committee of MPs.
In a new report on the disability employment gap, the Commons work and pensions committee also criticises the minister for disabled people, Justin Tomlinson.
The committee’s report says: “It is particularly shocking that services provided by the Department for Work and Pensions, whose ministerial team includes the Minister for Disabled People and which is responsible for a significant proportion of the Government’s work on disability, remain inaccessible to some disabled people.”
It says that DWP should act as a “beacon of best practice” on accessibility for other government departments.
The inquiry heard instead that too many disabled people were finding it difficult to access support through JobcentrePlus, including Deaf users of British Sign Language who were not provided with an interpreter, and people with visual impairments who were not offered assistance inside jobcentres.
The committee has called [...]