EMPLOYMENT minister Alan Howarth spoke about the Government's plans to provide better opportunities for the disabled at Shendish Manor in Kings Langley on Wednesday.

Mr Howarth, Minister for Employment and Equal Opportunities, was guest speaker at a two-day conference organised by the Association for Supported Employment (AfSE).

The conference was set up to discuss the issues facing organisations helping disabled people gain employment.

The minister told The Watford Observer: "People with a long-term illness should be given the opportunity to play their part in an integrated society.

"The Government recognises that people with disabilities have a valuable role in society. In the past many of these people have been marginalised, facing a life of benefit dependency. This is wrong.

"A job of the Government and society is to find effective, imaginative and practical ways to help disabled people overcome the difficulties of their impairment."

In July the Government set aside £195 million to help people with a disability or long-term illness get work.

The cash injection was part of the Government's New Deal initiative to get unemployed people off the dole queues.

Mr Howarth said: "This is a part of our commitment to disabled people.

"They do need support, so we will provide funding to innovative schemes that will test ways to help disabled people move into work or remain in work."

According to the latest Labour Force Survey there are 5.3 million people with a disability or long-term illness. Of these, 2.1 million are working and around one million others are thought to want to work.

Mr Howarth said he was disappointed with the perception that the Government was trying to squeeze benefits for disabled people.

He said: "A lot of that in the media was scaremongering. We do not want to force disabled people to work."

AfSE expect to select up to 20 schemes it believes will help get disabled people in work. Chairman of the AfSE Ms Deborah Steele said Hertfordshire was a model county in that many firms had employed disabled people.

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