This week, the Government brought forward further legislation to support its flagship Get Britain Working White Paper. The new ‘Right to Try’ work is aimed at de-risking pathways to employment for disabled people currently out of the labour market.

This proposal has been in development for some time, reflecting one of the recommendations of Alan Milburn’s Pathways to Work Commission that I sat on in 2024. If passed, the legislation will mean that disabled people who start work or volunteering will no longer automatically face a benefit reassessment. With nearly 2.8 million people currently economically inactive due to long-term health conditions, Ministers hope this will reassure those who want to work but are currently put off by the prospect of potentially losing benefits if it doesn’t work out.

But just how effective will this latest reform be?

Disabled people continue to face deep inequalities in the labour market

To answer this question, we need to understand the challenging labour market picture that disabled people face. ONS data suggests that unemployment has been creeping up for a number of months, and currently sits at 5.2% – up from 4.4% a year ago. Combined with a reduction in vacancies, this means the job market is now more competitive, with an average of three jobseekers for every available post. That represents the highest level since late 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the same time, the disability employment gap has widened to 29.5%, reversing some of the progress made in recent years. There are now 547,000 unemployed disabled people in the UK, an increase of 110,000 since Oct-Dec 2024, with the latest ONS data suggesting disabled people are now twice as likely to be unemployed than non-disabled people (9.2% vs 4.4%).

And the picture becomes even more challenging when we look at levels of economic inactivity. While headline figures suggest that economic inactivity has fallen in recent months – down by nearly three percentage points over the past year – levels of health-related economic inactivity have stayed relatively stable over the same period.

Overall, the total number of people economically inactive due to health conditions remains at over 2.7 million – still more than 600,000 higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The new Right to Try could reduce some of the risks disabled people face

However, despite this difficult context, DWP evidence suggests many disabled people and those with health conditions currently out of the labour market would like to work. But too many find themselves navigating a welfare and employment support system that can make a transition into employment feel inherently risky.

In particular, a key barrier for many is the fear that attempting to enter the workforce could jeopardise their access to essential welfare support. More than a third (37 percent) of disabled people and people with health conditions in the DWP work aspirations survey said they want to work but are held back by fear of losing their benefits. For individuals who rely on this support to meet basic needs, the prospect of losing it – even temporarily – can be enough to deter job applications altogether.

More broadly, evidence suggests many people leave a job shortly after joining an organisation. It’s not uncommon for a new job to not work out, but given the wider barriers they often face, that risk is likely to be higher for disabled people, with the consequences of it happening also more significant for their income and living standards.

This is where the new Right to Try could make a material difference. The new legislation acknowledges the reality that pathways into work may not always be linear or successful at the first attempt, and that individuals should not have to absorb the risks of trying to get back into work.

By supporting disabled people to test their capacity for work and whether a role will be a good fit for them without immediately losing their welfare entitlements, the policy has the potential to provide vital reassurance to disabled people when they are weighing up whether to re-engage with the jobs market.

Access to secure and flexible jobs is vital to make the Right to Try a success

However, a Right to Try will only be as meaningful as the opportunities it enables disabled people to access. If suitable roles are scarce, insecure, or inflexible, the impact of the policy will inevitably be reduced.

Evidence suggests that access to remote and hybrid working opportunities will be critical. A 2025 DWP survey found access to remote working could be an important factor for disabled people who are outside of the labour market, with 25% of people in receipt of health related benefits believing they could work if remote options were available.

And research from the Work Foundation and Lancaster University – drawing on the UK’s largest mixed-methods study of disabled remote and hybrid workers – finds that 85% of disabled workers consider homeworking to be essential or very important when looking for a new job.

Yet the availability of such roles appears to be declining. Analysis of job vacancy data from Adzuna shows that in 2024/25, only one in 23 job adverts (4.3%) were fully remote. This represents a sharp fall from the pandemic peak of 8.7% in 2020/21. Meanwhile, growth in hybrid roles appears to have stalled, with just one in seven vacancies (13.5%) offering this form of flexibility.

Figure 1: Proportion of jobs advertised as remote or hybrid in the UK

Source: Work Foundation analysis of Adzuna Intelligence jobs vacancies data. Each year runs from 1 May to 30 April.

Any contraction in flexible working opportunities presents a clear risk to efforts to support more disabled people into work. Without sufficient access to roles that can accommodate different needs and circumstances, disabled people may find themselves unable to make use of the Right to Try in practice.

The Right to Try cannot operate in isolation – the Government must drive to improve job quality

For the Right to Try to deliver meaningful change, it must sit alongside a wider push to improve job quality and accessibility. That means not only increasing the supply of secure and flexible roles, but ensuring they are visible and genuinely attainable. More roles offered to disabled jobseekers through Jobcentre Plus should meet these standards, while employers must play their part by designing inclusive jobs and clearly advertising flexible options.

Policy will also be critical in shaping labour market conditions. The implementation of the Employment Rights Act, including day-one rights to flexible working, offers an important opportunity to level the playing field – provided the supporting codes of practice maintain their strength.

At the same time, it’s vital that the Government does not increase risks elsewhere in the welfare system, such as through reductions in disability-related benefits or access to them.

Ultimately, getting Britain working depends not just on moving people into jobs, but on ensuring those jobs are suitable, sustainable, and inclusive. The Right to Try is a positive step, but without more focus on providing such opportunities, it risks being undermined by the barriers it seeks to address.

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