Research shows unemployment programs lacking for people with disabilities

LAWRENCE, KS, Sept. 8, 2010 — "Federal programs to assist the unemployed are failing job seekers with disabilities, according to an investigation by Jean Hall and Kathy Parker of the Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas.

The KU study, published recently in the Career Development Quarterly, shows two major federal programs — the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, which requires recipients to find employment within two years, and the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which set up “One-Stop” centers to cluster services for the unemployed — have inadequacies in aiding people with physical or mental health impairments.

“The biggest problem is that these are one-size-fits-all programs,” said Hall, associate research professor in the Center for Research on Learning’s Division of Adult Studies. “People with disabilities, because they are a smaller subset, don’t get the kind of services they need. They are lost in the system.”

The insufficiency of the programs is striking because about 63 percent of Americans with disabilities are unemployed. Moreover, 29 percent of TANF benefit recipients nationwide have physical or mental health impairments, as opposed to 11 percent of the population not receiving TANF benefits."

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