• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Employment / Concern over DWP plans to scrap specialist work adviser roles

Concern over DWP plans to scrap specialist work adviser roles

By John Pring on 29th December 2014 Category: Employment, News Archive, Politics

Listen

newslatestNew moves to scrap the role of specialist disability employment advisers (DEAs) in some jobcentres risk “dismantling” the support available to help disabled people into work, campaigners fear.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed this week that a pilot scheme to create a new “Unipod” structure in Jobcentre Plus offices is being rolled out across central England as part of the transition towards the new universal credit benefit system.

Under the Unipod system all Jobcentre Plus work coaches will be given extra training so they can offer specialist advice to disabled people and lone parents, with the role of DEAs removed completely.

Civil servants claim that a trial in Leicester jobcentres produced “very successful results and a positive reaction from customers and staff”.

Under the Unipod system, there are no individual specialist officers – including DEAs – in jobcentres, with all work coaches instead “working closely together to deliver a seamless service to customers regardless of what benefit they are on”.

In an email seen by Disability News Service, a senior civil servant says that all work coaches will be able to support disabled people on both the mainstream jobseeker’s allowance and the out-of-work disability benefit employment and support allowance, as well as lone parents.

She adds: “Training and assistance is available to all non specialist work coaches to give them the specialist knowledge.

“This will enable us to provide a quicker service for these customers as they will not have to wait for an appointment to see a specialist, all work coaches will be able to assist.”

But concerns about the Unipod system – and the loss of specialist DEAs – have been highlighted by Disability Rights UK (DR UK).

Liz Sayce, DR UK’s chief executive, said: “We think it is vital that government consults with disabled people about changes to the role of DEAs and others in jobcentres under the Unipod plans.

“We need to be confident that there will be people who understand what it takes for a wide range of people with different impairments, circumstances and job aspirations to work successfully.

“The current system is patchy – very good in parts – and we need to be confident that good practice will be built on, not dismantled.”

A DWP spokesman said the department was “not getting rid” of DEAs, but instead that jobcentres in central England were “testing a new system where work coaches will have the flexibility to help all types of claimants, ensuring a truly individualised service to help as many people as possible into work”.

He said that work coaches – including those previously known as DEAs – would “continue to get all the training they need”, but he accepted that all of them would now receive identical training.

23 December 2014

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn

Tags: Department for Work and Pensions Disability employment advisers Disability Rights UK Jobcentre Plus Liz Sayce Unipod

A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

Disabled people receiving care were ‘ignored by design’ during the pandemic, Covid inquiry hears
3rd July 2025
‘We will not give a single inch,’ disabled activists vow, as Kendall publishes disability cuts bill
19th June 2025
Rebel Labour MPs send final warning to ministers before disability cuts bill is published
19th June 2025

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

Government ignores warnings of new DWP deaths, and UN intervention, as MPs pass universal credit cuts bill

Urgent letter from UN to Labour government warns: We think your cuts continue Tory attack on disability rights

Race against time to secure DWP deaths evidence before parliament passes new benefit cuts bill

‘Complete shift in thinking’ needed on education of disabled children, says ALLFIE

Minister ignored concerns from disabled advisers, months before publishing cuts bill

Frustration after government only issues partial ban on new floating bus stops

Report suggests five big ideas that could transform disabled people’s mobility

My new book shows exactly why we need the disability movement, says disabled author

‘Disastrous’ cuts bill that leaves legacy of distrust and distress ‘must be dropped’

Four disabled Labour MPs stand up to government over cuts to disability benefits

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web