Here’s a short video from the gatecrash of the very flash, co-branded Barclays-DWP Disability Confident conference at the London Hilton this week. Always a joy to drop in on the Hilton, albeit down the arse-end of the gravy train. They charged us £4 for a coffee. FOUR POUNDS. My word. Oh to be rich. Such a shame they didn’t ask us to stay for the networking lunch. I would have made time.

The Disability Confident campaign is… “the government working with employers to remove barriers, increase understanding and ensure that disabled people have the opportunities to fulfil their potential and realise their aspirations.” Lovely. There’s a heap of money in all this, although not for a lot of disabled people, I’m guessing. “Disabled people spend £80 billion a year,” reads the DWP’s bumpf, “so having an employee base that reflects your customers will help you to meet customer needs and achieve sustainable growth.” Super. I can almost hear Barclays saying “you had us at £80 billion.” Employers can also get more than £2000 for each person they take for six months – this is called “Work Choice”, don’t you know. The people I was with said they couldn’t help thinking there’d be more choice for disabled people if they got money directly to make their own decisions about places to work and the support they need to get there, but hey. They weren’t invited to the Barclays thing.

Government attacks on disabled people’s funding – including the funding that they have so successfully used to get to work until now – get less of an airing in the Disability Confident publicity, so Disabled People Against Cuts turned up to Tuesday’s festivities to ask the pertinent questions. Andy from Disabled People Against Cuts interrupted keynote speaker Simon Weston to contribute a few key points. He asked, for instance, how disabled people could expect to be supported into work while the government eliminates all-important funds like the Independent Living Fund – the money that pays for the 24-hour care support which means severely disabled people can continue in their work and studying, etc. I’m interested to know how many employers will come good with the substantial funding that people in those situations deserve and require.

I look forward to Barclays and the DWP holding another event to which all Independent Living Fund recipients are invited – and all people who’ve been excluded from it since the fund closed to new applicants in 2010. Same goes for deaf people who must deal with new caps on spending for support hours via the Access to Work scheme (you can read more about that here and here). Same also goes for people whose choices in anything get smaller and smaller as councils slaughter care services. Hard to get to work when your support funding is obliterated and when your training-to-employment centre is closed. Pity we didn’t catch up with Mike Penning at Tuesday’s conference. Could have told him right then and there to book the inclusive conference that Andy calls for in the video.