Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-10-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce the autism employment gap.

Penny Mordaunt

We will shortly publish a Green Paper on work and health and conduct a consultation aimed at disabled people, their representative organisations and a wide range of other stakeholders.

We have put in place the Autism Alliance UK contract to upskill autism leads across the JCP+/DWP Network – Delivering autism and associated hidden impairments training by specialists in this area. So far we have reached over 1,100 staff.

It is hoped the training will help increase the proportion of autistic adults in full-time employment, which currently stands at 15%, according to the National Autistic Society.

DWP has also developed an uncovering hidden impairments toolkit to help colleagues support those with hidden impairments, including autism.