We can no longer accept this grotesque employment gap for sight-impaired people
3 min read
If you are blind or sight-impaired in the UK, currently the employment rate is just 27 per cent. If you are not disabled, it is 83 per cent. That is an employment gap of 56 percentage points. It means that if you are sight-impaired, you have only around a one in four chance of being in work.
This rate has not improved in a generation. In fact, since 2018, the employment rate has been falling for people who describe themselves as having difficulty seeing despite increasing for the broader population including the broader disabled population.
It is a completely unacceptable situation. This grotesque employment gap means lost income, lost independence, and lost opportunity for thousands who are fully capable and up for contributing to our economy and society.
I am calling for urgent action and have asked the government to strongly consider establishing a taskforce to look at the issues, identify scalable solutions, deliver measurable progress and set a timeline to close the gap once and for all.
This is not a party political point. No government has gripped this.
I am grateful for the support of my colleague in the Lords – and fellow guide-dog user – David Blunkett, who says it is “a national disgrace that after a generation of talking about closing the employment gap for blind and partially sighted people we don’t seem to have moved the dial at all“. As he points out, “so much wasted talent is not only a story of devastating personal struggles, but social and economic failings on a scale that impacts us all”.
I sincerely hope that this is the government that will finally act to make the difference, improving not only individual lives but potentially adding billions in economic contributions, increased tax receipts, reduced welfare expenditure and the economic value of thousands of skilled, motivated workers.
As one jobseeker said: “Closing the employment gap is not just about fairness, it’s about preventing blind or SSI (severely sight impaired) people from being pushed further to the margins during the economic turbulence we are facing today that is hitting everyone.”
Responding to my question on this in the Lords, minister Baroness Sherlock pointed out existing government initiatives, including the pathways to work guarantee, investment in the connected to work supported employment program, specialist disability employment advisers and other ‘work with employers’.
This is welcome but we need far greater focus on removing barriers.
Colleagues at the Federation of Small Businesses told me waiting times for new Access to Work programme applications have increased dramatically this year which is acting as another barrier. They also said that opening up the Jobs Guarantee Scheme to those out of work due to health reasons, would help close the employment gap for blind and partially sighted people.
The minister has not yet committed to a taskforce although she emphasised a desire “to listen to voices of disabled people including blind and visually-impaired people“. This is absolutely essential and I will continue to meet with the minister and colleagues to push for action.
We cannot afford another day, never mind decades, of overlooked talent. By enabling blind and sight-impaired people to contribute fully to our workforce, we strengthen our economy, our communities, and the fairness of our society, for the benefit and betterment of us all. That’s not a bad new year’s resolution for 2026.
Lord Holmes is a Conservative peer
