Lack of help for Remploy attacked

Mar 3 2013

Labour MPs including former Prime Minister Gordon Brown have attacked the UK Government's decision not to provide additional funding to save factories employing disabled workers.

Mr Brown, Thomas Docherty and Lindsay Roy said two Remploy factories, in Leven and Cowdenbeath in Fife, are being put under "a sentence of death" by the inflexibility of the Government.

Eight potential buyers have come forward to take over the under-threat factories, with offers dependent on the terms of privatisation.

But the Fife politicians said progress on a buy-out has been hampered by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's refusal to extend transitional financial support to prospective bidders.

The Fife MPs have been pressing for more generous aid to secure the factories' financial viability.

It is impossible for the factories to move from losses of £20,000 or more per disabled worker to full financial viability in one year without a higher level of government help.

The Government is offering £3,200 per disabled employee in the first year of privatisation, or £6,400 overall over three years.

A letter from Mr Duncan Smith to Mr Brown stated that "no additional transitional funding will be available" and that "any additional financial support over and above that already made available will dilute the focus on people building sustainable businesses, at least in the short term".

A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman later said: "We have protected the £320 million budget for specialist disability services, but we need to use the money more effectively on successful schemes like Access to Work, instead of losing millions of pounds in loss-making segregated factories.

"If bidders come forward with a credible plan to safeguard jobs for disabled people and put the marine textiles business on sustainable long-term footing, then requests for extra funding will be considered as part of the commercial process."