The UK Government has announced an expansion of its Jobs Guarantee programme, ensuring that young people with disabilities are offered fully-funded jobs just three months after their Work Capability Assessment. 

The Jobs Guarantee programme was launched earlier this year to support 18 to 24 year olds who have been unemployed and claiming Universal Credit for 18 months or more. The new expansion means that young people in this age group who receive disability benefits will be fast-tracked into the scheme, and offered a guaranteed voluntary job much sooner. 

This announcement is an important step in reducing the notoriously high disability employment gap: recent government statistics show that only 52.8% of people with disabilities between the ages of 16 to 64 are in work, compared with 82.5% of people without disabilities of the same age, illustrating the significant barriers many still face when seeking employment.

SeeAbility’s Ready, Willing and Able programme, which has supported people with disabilities into more than 70 jobs since its inception, has demonstrated what people can achieve in the workplace when they’re given the right support. Our programme has supported people into a wide range of fields, including retail, hospitality, administration, health and social care, and customer service roles, showcasing the significant contribution that people with disabilities can make when barriers to employment are removed. 

Voluntary roles can be an important stepping stone towards paid employment. After securing paid work, we've seen people on our programme become more confident, develop new skills, and increase in independence. 

We welcome the government’s commitment to supporting more young people with disabilities to access employment, and hope this expansion will lead to more people than ever before having access to meaningful careers.