Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the barriers to employment faced by autistic people with (a) higher education qualifications and (b) professional experience in Surrey Heath constituency.

As set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, we are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service across Great Britain that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them to progress in work. Our new service will move away from the current one size fits all approach, recognising people are individuals with different support needs and will provide better tailored support. The new service will be universal and must work for everyone, including autistic individuals with higher education qualifications and professional experience.

In the plan to Make Work Pay (October 2024), government committed to raising awareness of all forms of neurodiversity in the workplace. This includes autism. In January 2025, DWP launched an independent panel of academics with expertise and experiences of neurodiversity to advise us on why neurodivergent people have poor experiences in the workplace, and a low overall employment rate.

The panel has reviewed the formal evidence base in relation to workplace barriers neurodivergent people in getting into or remaining in employment, or in developing their careers. The panel has built on the work of the Buckland Review of Autism Employment, which reported to the previous government, and which provided useful insights on the employment barriers faced by autistic people.

We have now received a final version of the Panel’s report, which we will consider alongside the work of the major independent review on healthy and inclusive workplaces, Keep Britain Working.

Furthermore, we know that whilst there are common and consistent barriers faced by disabled people and people with health conditions, including neurodivergent people, we also know that each individual will face a unique combination of these barriers that go beyond the barriers typically associated with their condition.

DWP research asked disabled people and people with health conditions who were not currently in work the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with a series of eighteen statements about the barriers to finding work. Barriers were grouped as health, confidence and skills, employer/workplace, and DWP/benefit related barriers. Overall, 87% of customers agreed with one or more of the statements, and on average customers agreed with six of the eighteen. The research found those cognitive/neurodevelopmental conditions saw interviews as a significant barrier, along with distance and travel barriers leading to disorientation when in new or unfamiliar places.