8 July 2026 | Common Sense Policy Group written evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry
Disabled people are protected from discrimination by the Equality Act from day one of employment, yet many disabled people report that this protection feels theoretical, accessible only through exhausting, precarious, adversarial processes. Flexible working has not closed the disability employment gap because the same adversarial processes govern access to the financial support and equipment that makes flexibility possible. The problem is not the existence of entitlements, but the designed difficulty of claiming them.
