By Professor Peter A Jones MBE: Government Welfare Reforms Overlook Hospitality’s Potential.
As Chair of the Crumbs Project, I recently joined an online discussion with our local MP Jessica Toale about the welfare reform bill. My concerns centre on how these changes would affect our trainees, particularly regarding PIP payments and Universal Credit. While last-minute amendments addressed some issues, they highlight a fundamental problem: the lack of “joined up” thinking in government’s approach to welfare reform, especially in providing job opportunities for those living with disability.
Sir Charlie Mayfield’s current Keep Britain Working Review acknowledges that “employers have a key role to play in creating inclusive workplaces that protect mental and physical health and support the retention and rehabilitation of employees, including disabled people.” However, neither the Mayfield review nor the Government’s “Pathways to Work” Green Paper suggests genuine employer engagement. Despite ambitious guarantees and a £1 billion employment support package, the approach remains light on employer engagement and adopts a problematic one-size-fits-all strategy.
The hospitality sector offers unique advantages as a catalyst for disability inclusion. It represents Britain’s most geographically accessible employment sector, spanning from village pubs to city hotel chains. This unparalleled reach means hospitality opportunities could exist within travelling distance wherever disabled people live, whether in rural communities or urban centres.
This geographic accessibility combines with exceptional employment flexibility. The sector offers part- time to full-time positions, evening, weekend, and seasonal work accommodating various disabilities and circumstances. From kitchen assistants to events coordination, hospitality provides employment pathways for virtually every skill level and capability.
The government’s “Pathways to Work Guarantee” promises dedicated support for all those affected by welfare reforms. Yet this commitment exposes a critical weakness: the strategy continues adopting a generic approach that fails to recognise sector-specific employment characteristics.
Organisations like the Crumbs Project, which provides hospitality training for adults with learning disabilities, consistently warn that “implementing additional support requires significant training and costs plus much greater engagement with potential employers”. Our experience demonstrates that effective transition-to-work schemes “cannot be one size fits all and need tailoring to individual needs whilst understanding employer requirements”.
The new guarantees may provide reassurance to benefit claimants, but they fail to address the critical transition from work placements to permanent employment. The system perpetuates a destructive cycle: disabled individuals complete successful placements under the “Right to Try Guarantee”, demonstrate capabilities, but face no corresponding employer obligation to offer genuine opportunities or reasonable adjustments.
Under the new welfare regime, this becomes more problematic. With tightened PIP eligibility affecting up to 1.2 million people and reduced Universal Credit health elements for new claimants, pressure to convert placements into permanent employment increases. Yet the government provides no mechanism ensuring this crucial transition occurs.
Government guarantees become meaningless without adequate employer preparation. The hospitality sector exemplifies this challenge. While offering excellent employment opportunities for disabled people, employer engagement remains “a significant barrier”. The “Pathways to Work Guarantee” promises dedicated adviser support, but advisers will struggle placing people if employers lack disability employment opportunities and understanding.
Real employer preparation requires sector-specific solutions: practical, hospitality-focused guidance on reasonable adjustments, financial incentives for permanent job creation, and comprehensive manager training programmes. The government should provide extended subsidies for permanent positions following successful placements, enhanced and less bureaucratic Access to Work funding for hospitality-specific adaptations, and “golden hello” payments for employers converting placements into permanent roles.
Many hospitality businesses remain unaware that reasonable adjustments are often minimal, including modified shifts, ergonomic equipment, or task reallocation within existing team structures. The sector’s characteristics, diverse roles, flexible working patterns, team-based environments make it naturally suited to disability inclusion, yet this potential remains untapped.
Small and medium enterprises within the sector cannot carry additional staff costs without incentives. There’s a strong economic and social argument for using both carrots and sticks: financial incentives for disability employment, penalties for failing to demonstrate meaningful disability inclusion beyond mere policy compliance.
The government’s new employment guarantees represent progress, but they will fail without proper employer engagement and sector-specific implementation. The hospitality industry could be positioned as a key partner in delivering these guarantees.
Without meaningful engagement, the government’s ambitious guarantees risk becoming empty promises. The hospitality industry is exceptionally well-placed to respond to these guarantees, but only if the government provides the sector-specific support, employer preparation, and financial incentives necessary to make disability employment truly viable for the majority, not just the few.
Accessible Hospitality Alliance and The Clink Charity Forge Partnership Built on Shared Purpose
