Disability and Social (In)Security: Emotions, Contradictions of ‘Inclusion’ and Employment and Support Allowance

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the ways in which emotions are engaged in the discursive construction and treatment of disabled people in receipt of social security benefits. The article draws upon the literature related to the social importance of emotions and that concerned with moral boundary drawing. It argues that the evocation of emotional reactions is crucial in understanding the ways in which changes to out-of-work benefits for disabled people (the development of Employment and Support Allowance) have recently been effected and the ways in which this has reflected a desire to more closely denote those judged able and not able to work in a redrawing of the 'disability category' . While this has been done in the name of 'inclusion' , the article concludes that its consequences are, in various ways, the 'exclusion' and stigmatisation of disabled people.

Which Employers Offer Hope for Mainstream Job Opportunities for Disabled People?

“…We aimed to identify where there is scope for employment support agency consultants to help disabled people find jobs. Mainstream employment is very important for social and economic inclusion of disabled people (Grover and Piggott, 2013; Humber, 2014). Adopting a marketing perspective to classify employers into cohorts with similar characteristics, our key finding is that employers fall into four categories that have been extensively documented in consumer marketing literature (Sharp, 2010).…”

“…They may acknowledge disabled people's rights to employment, but they have no propensity to hire disabled people themselves. Overcoming resistance to disabled people is a long-term issue requiring dissemination of much new knowledge through policy and media (Grover and Piggot, 2013).…”

“…Employers that do hire disabled people can receive some government financial assistance. But, the challenge to increase workforce participation of disabled people in mainstream jobs will require government support that resolves financial and non-financial concerns of disabled people, employers and support agencies (Grover and Piggott, 2013).…”

‘Any one of us could be among that number’: Comparing the Policy Narratives for Individualized Disability Funding in Australia and England

“…The location of the NDIS within a social investment approach places it in a different standing vis‐a‐vis the individual than in the English case. In the UK, activation policies to bring more people into the workplace have been a key part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) agenda for two decades, and have included a more recent focus on people with disabilities (Garthwaite ; Grover and Piggott ). However, those DWP initiatives have been kept discursively separate from the Department of Health‐led policy of person‐centred care and personal budgets (Needham ).…”

The inclusion of people with hepatitis C within disability studies

“…Not meeting the criteria presents participants as non-disabled. Grover and Piggott (2013) state that ESA claimants (like Daniel and Grace) are subject to social sorting (Lyon 2003) which leads to the development and maintenance of hierarchies of entitlement, where only severely impaired people will be entitled to benefits and others will be consigned to living in poverty. This is likely to worsen further given the recent announcements that no ESA will be paid during a period of 'mandatory reconsideration' (which must be gone through prior to appeal.…”