Don't Kill off Remploy, Enable It to Make the Most of a Big Market; the Government Is Due to Announce Its Response to a Report That Recommends Withdrawing Funding for an Organisation That Has Employed Disabled People across the Country for over 60 Years. Here Swansea West MP Geraint Davies Argues Why This Would Be a Backward Step

REMPLOY was set up under the 1944 Disabled Persons Employment Act by Ernest Bevin. Its first factory was set up here in Wales in 1946. This factory, in Bridgend, made violins and furniture and many of the workers were disabled miners.

The name Remploy, which was used from 1946, was derived from "re-employ". This organisation prospered with dozens of factories set up across the UK operating a diverse variety of businesses including the manufacture of motor components and making protection suits for police and military. It also expanded its services over the years to helping people find work and provide advice and training.

Its future has been under threat for a number of years. Earlier this year Liz Sayce, head of the disability organisation Radar, published a report that recommended that the subsidy for Remploy should be withdrawn and used for the Government's Access-to-Work fund.

Funding currently comes from the Department of Work and Pensions, which gives pounds 63m in support that works out at around pounds 23,000 a year for every …

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Publication information: Article title: Don't Kill off Remploy, Enable It to Make the Most of a Big Market; the Government Is Due to Announce Its Response to a Report That Recommends Withdrawing Funding for an Organisation That Has Employed Disabled People across the Country for over 60 Years. Here Swansea West MP Geraint Davies Argues Why This Would Be a Backward Step. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales). Publication date: December 6, 2011. Page number: 18. © 2009 MGN Ltd. COPYRIGHT 2011 Gale Group.

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