Recent research conducted by the Work Foundation at Lancaster University has revealed that 1.3 million disabled workers find themselves trapped in severely insecure work in the UK, despite 430,000 saying that they would like more hours.

‘The Disability Gap: Insecure work in the UK’ report found that disabled workers are 1.5 times more likely to be in severely insecure work compared to their non-disabled peers.

Women with disabilities are more than twice as likely to be in severely insecure work compared to disabled men, while autistic workers (38%) and those with mental health conditions (28%) are most likely to be in severely insecure work.

Lack of flexibility for disabled workers

Our findings showed that disabled workers are more likely to find themselves in ‘involuntary temporary work’ - such as freelancing – often because of a lack of flexibility within the workplace.

And when talking to BBC Access All podcast, freelance writer and blogger Pippa Stacey – who was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) during her university days – reflect that that was the exact situation she found herself in after leaving her previous job of three years.

While Stacey’s previous role allowed her to work from home, which she described as both a ‘relief’ and a ‘weight off’ her mind, she still found there to be significant challenges because of being in a structured working pattern.

“The main thing for me is there wasn’t as much flexibility over my hours,” Stacey told BBC Sounds podcast Access All: Disability News and Mental Health. “And when you have a chronic illness it’s very hard to predict day-to-day what your symptoms are going to be like.

“They [the employer] were understanding to an extent, but I still obviously had to be working during those classic office hours. I had to be available for regular meetings, which was challenging at that time. And if I’m honest I often found that there was a lack of understanding about chronic illness and long- term illness.

“Oh my gosh, I was exhausted. Because it was my first job out of university, and I’d really struggled to find anything at all that could possibly work, I did just have to put everything into making it work. I managed to remain in that role for three years, and I did have a really great experience in lots of ways. But I knew that with the impact it was having on my health, it just wouldn’t be sustainable long term. I kept burning myself out over and over again. It was that, and a few other things that prompted me to start considering self-employment and whether freelance life is something that might be more accessible for me.

“The main benefit of freelance life for me is just having that level of flexibility over my hours and I can just create my own schedule. So, I can have an idea in my head over how my week would go but then day-to-day if I didn’t feel well, or if something had happened, or if I had medical appointments or medical procedures, I always have the ability to tailor what my day looks like and to move things around. It just gave me more opportunity to listen to my body and figure out how I could make work, work alongside my health as well.”

Insecure work presents numerous challenges

However, freelancing - like many other insecure forms of employment - often coincide with unpredictable pay, a lack of guarantee over set hours or future work as well as no access to employment rights or protections.

While this form of work is suitable for some, for many it poses significant challenges which they may not have chosen if employers offered more flexibility for disabled workers.

“It’s tough,” she said. “Being a disabled freelancer is tough. Even with all of the pros, it’s often unpredictable, the work often feels unstable. You just don’t know what is going to come in at any given time. You don’t have things like sick leave, which is a massive con when you are dealing with a chronic illness, there’s no annual leave, and it’s very difficult to take days off.

“I think a massive thing is simply having more flexible roles to apply for. So, roles where job adverts specifically advertise flexible working, reduced hours, things like job shares. Just giving people some element of choice and actually having roles to apply for is a massive thing to start with.”

Significant reform needed to tackle this issue

When asked what could be done to improve the current state of play the Director of the Work Foundation, Ben Harrison, said he felt significant reform was essential when trying to find a solution to the problem.

“We need to see a new Employment Bill that would drive up employment standards across the whole country for all people who find themselves in insecure work,” Harrison said. “But of course, that would disproportionately benefit those with disabilities because they are more likely to be in those kinds of jobs.

“We’d also like to see an extension of the right to flexible work so that that takes place on day one that would allow those with disabilities to agree a set of arraignments with their employer from the get-go that works for them when it comes to managing their conditions.

“But I also think there are some more focused interventions that are likely to be required. For example, we need to see a greater investment in things like Access to Work and employment support for those with disabilities, and we need to make sure that any changes to things like Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and Universal Credit more broadly, don’t end up pushing those with disabilities into just accepting any job because of the threat of sanctions, regardless of the kind of job security that it offers.”

To read more about the experiences of disabled people in severely insecure work, please see ‘The Disability Gap: Insecure work in the UK’.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed by our bloggers and those providing comments are personal, and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lancaster University. Responsibility for the accuracy of any of the information contained within blog posts belongs to the blogger.