This week I have written to Iain Duncan Smith to demand the government provides support for the former employees of Remploy factories.

Remploy factories were set up to provide employment, stability and security for disabled workers and miners, providing them with long term steady jobs.

In 2013 the current government decided to close the last of these factories and pledged to provide funding to help former staff to find new employment. However, this week it has emerged that almost half of those employed by Remploy factories are still struggling to find jobs long after their closures.

A number of my constituents lost their jobs following the government’s decision to close the Remploy Factory in Pontefract in 2012. 
 
We have constituents affected by the closure who had worked at the factory for many years, in some cases decades, who now, despite their own best efforts, remain unemployed and unable to find work.  

The government provided limited funding to help these people back to work with dedicated caseworkers but this service was also cut by the government despite myself having expressed serious concern about the withdrawal of this vital service.

It is deeply unfair to leave former Remploy employees without the help they need to get back to work, in my letter to Iain Duncan Smith I have express my disappointment and called for further support- the government’s actions to this point have been absolutely shameful and the news that almost half of the former employees have not found work just re iterates the government’s failure on disability employment.