By Professor Peter Jones MBE FCGI FIH FRACA: How the Chancellor’s welfare cuts overlook a fundamental disconnect failing both disabled workers and hospitality employers.
As the Chancellor of the Exchequer forges ahead with ambitious welfare budget savings of £4.8 billion, a critical policy gap threatens to undermine both the Treasury’s goals and the hospitality industry’s people’s needs. The government’s strategy of cutting disability benefits to encourage workforce participation overlooks a fundamental disconnect: the lack of corresponding support for employers who might otherwise provide jobs.
The Implementation Gap
Industry research reveals a striking contradiction at the heart of current welfare reform. While the government focuses intently on reducing benefit expenditure through stricter assessments and reduced payment rates, it has allocated comparatively minimal resources to help employers—particularly in the hospitality sector—create accessible workplaces.
This implementation gap is further highlighted by the DWP’s recent announcement that 1,000 existing work coaches will be transferred to supporting sick and disabled claimants in 2025/26, with 65,000 claimants set to receive “intensive voluntary support” to move into work. While this may appear to address employment barriers, the initiative remains heavily weighted toward individual jobseekers rather than employers.
If as is likely this support will include CV writing and interview techniques. These themselves are proven barriers to those with disabilities.
Will these work coaches have any understanding not only of the needs and conditions of those with disabilities?
Will they have developed appropriate relationships with employers to understand how best the process of employment can be improved?
No references made to how the success of this “intense voluntary support” will be measured nor indeed if it is reviewed and modified from experience. It does not bode well.
Nor is it likely to overcome concerns expressed in a DWP survey results showing that 44% of disabled people don’t trust the department to help them reach their full career potential, while nearly 2 in 5 don’t trust the DWP to take their needs into account when providing services. This trust deficit represents a significant obstacle to the success of any work coach program, particularly in a service-focused industry like hospitality where confidence and rapport are essential.
Despite these challenges, the policy disconnects continues, people with disabilities face reduced financial support without meaningful improvement in their employment prospects. Simultaneously, hospitality businesses that could benefit from an expanded talent pool receive little assistance in making necessary workplace adaptations.
Disproportionate Impact
The consequences of this policy disconnect fall disproportionately on those with disabilities who actively want to work but encounter persistent barriers to employment. Recent surveys indicate that over 60% of unemployed people with disabilities in the UK express interest in working in customer-facing sectors like hospitality, yet they remain frustrated by systematic obstacles to securing and maintaining employment.
These obstacles extend beyond individual motivation—which the benefit cuts ostensibly target—to include workplace accessibility, employer hesitation, potential adaptation costs, and lack of industry-specific support programs.
For many affected by the benefit changes, the result is a double penalty: reduced financial stability without improved employment opportunities. This situation creates precisely the kind of financial insecurity that the welfare system was designed to prevent, while doing little to achieve the Chancellor’s stated goal of increasing employment participation.
Businesses Left Without Support
The hospitality industry, coping with significant and persistent staffing shortages, increased employment costs through the rise in NIC contributions, increases in food, rent and other costs of doing business, is caught in this policy contradiction.
Industry data shows the problem clearly: while over 75% of hospitality businesses report staffing challenges, and two-thirds express willingness to hire disabled workers, fewer than a quarter feel they have the resources and knowledge to be able to support the policy.
The financial barriers are often surprisingly modest—most workplace accommodations cost less than £500, a fraction of the expense associated with constant recruitment and training due to high turnover. However, without upfront incentives, technical assistance, and protection against unforeseen costs, many hospitality businesses remain hesitant to take perceived risks.
Small hotels, independent restaurants, and catering companies operating on very thin profit margins are particularly vulnerable to this support gap. Without practical assistance, many potentially inclusive employers remain on the sidelines of disability employment, despite genuine interest in diversifying their workforce.
Success Requires Support
The handful of hospitality businesses that have successfully integrated workers with disabilities highlight what’s missing from the current approach. Those with successful disability employment programs typically succeed despite government policy rather than because of it—often by supplementing limited public support with significant private investment and initiative.
These success stories consistently demonstrate that integrating disabled workers into hospitality roles produces tangible business benefits, including higher retention rates, improved workplace culture, and enhanced customer service. However, they also reveal the substantial resources required to overcome the barriers that government policy leaves unaddressed.
The Access to Work scheme, the government’s primary mechanism for supporting workplace accommodations not only remains bureaucratically challenging to navigate but now faces an existential threat. Disability Minister Sir Stephen Timms recently claimed the program is “unsustainable,” despite providing vital grants averaging just £5,000 for reasonable workplace adjustments.
Timms’ recent testimony to the work and pensions committee revealed a troubling shift in government thinking. He noted that Access to Work was previously “the best-kept secret” but complained that “in the last two years there has been an enormous surge in applications,” leading to months-long processing delays. Rather than addressing these delays with increased funding, Timms indicated the government plans to place “more of the onus on employers to pay for adjustments” because “the current style of Access to Work is unlikely to be sustainable in the long term.”
For hospitality businesses this potential withdrawal of even minimal support represents a significant deterrent to hiring disabled workers.
The Economics Don’t Add Up
Economic analysis casts doubt on whether the Chancellor’s projected savings will materialise when considering the full picture. Budget calculations typically don’t account for downstream costs created when people are pushed into financial insecurity without improved employment prospects.
These costs include increased demand for emergency support services, housing assistance, mental health care, and lost tax revenue from potential workers who remain unemployed due to unaddressed barriers. For the hospitality sector specifically, the costs include persistent staff shortages, high turnover, and missed opportunities to benefit from an expanded talent pool.
A Blueprint for Closing the Gap
Industry associations and disability employment experts point to a more balanced approach that could better serve both the Treasury’s budget goals and the hospitality sector’s employment needs:
-
Allocate funding to employer support programs leading to Disability Confident Employers
-
Incentivise employment of those with disabilities
-
Create hospitality-specific guidance and streamlined funding for workplace accommodations
-
Implement tax incentives for businesses making accessibility improvements
-
Develop specialised training programs for ‘work coaches’ focused on hospitality roles
-
Develop a hospitality employment campaign to encourage more businesses to employ those with disabilities.
-
Provide technical assistance to identify practical solutions to overcome the barriers not just to employment, but to address the inherent unfairness of most recruitment
The Bottom Line
As the hospitality industry continues struggling with staffing challenges, the current approach to welfare reform represents a significant missed opportunity. The evidence consistently demonstrates that disability benefit reductions without corresponding employer support create a policy implementation gap that serves neither disabled workers nor potential employers nor the does it realise the savings suggested.
The fundamental mismatch in the government’s strategy is now clearer than ever: while the DWP focuses on improving CVs and interview techniques of disabled claimants through work coaches, it simultaneously signals a retreat from the employer support necessary to create viable job opportunities. If this imbalance persists—with intense focus on pushing claimants toward employment while withdrawing support for the employers expected to hire them—the efforts of even the most dedicated work coaches appear destined for limited success.
For hospitality businesses, the message is clear: current government policy creates an imbalance that leaves them without the support needed to tap into a willing workforce. For policymakers, the evidence suggests that genuine welfare savings and increased employment would be better achieved through a more balanced approach that addresses both sides of the employment equation.
Until this implementation gap is addressed, the Chancellor’s welfare savings will likely remain more theoretical than real, while the hospitality industry continues to face unnecessary staffing challenges despite a pool of potential workers eager for opportunity.
Note: I am Chair of Crumbs, a disability charity that provides hospitality and catering training for adults with learning and other mental disabilities. It is also a recognised Disability Confident Leader that can provide advice and guidance to employers. For further information visit here, or send an email to contact info@crumbs.org.uk.
