Employment: Disability
(asked on 24th February 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the most common physical impairments to employment.
The table shows the numbers of disabled people in or out of work, and the employment rate of disabled people by main physical health condition in the UK in April to June 2017. The most common physical conditions for disabled people in and out of work are musculoskeletal conditions.
| In work (000s) | Out of work (000s) | Total disabled people (000s) | Disabled employment rate (%) | |
Problems or disabilities (including arthritis or rheumatism) connected with arms or hands | 246 | 212 | 458 | 53.7 | |
Problems or disabilities (including arthritis or rheumatism) connected with back or neck | 585 | 452 | 1,036 | 56.4 | |
Problems or disabilities (including arthritis or rheumatism) connected with legs or feet | 432 | 333 | 765 | 56.5 | |
Difficulty in seeing | 47 | 38 | 85 | 54.9 | |
Difficulty in hearing | 40 | 24 | 65 | 62.3 | |
Severe disfigurements, skin conditions, allergies | 53 | 30 | 82 | 64.0 | |
Chest or breathing problems, asthma, bronchitis | 235 | 198 | 433 | 54.4 | |
Heart, blood pressure or blood circulation problems | 203 | 210 | 412 | 49.1 | |
Stomach, liver, kidney or digestive problems | 217 | 143 | 361 | 60.3 | |
Diabetes | 142 | 117 | 259 | 55.0 | |
Epilepsy | 26 | 66 | 92 | 28.0 | |
Progressive illness not included elsewhere (e.g. cancer, multiple sclerosis, symptomatic HIV, Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy) | 157 | 259 | 416 | 37.7 | |
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Total with a physical health condition | 2,381 | 2,082 | 4,463 | 53.4 |
Source: Characteristics of disabled people in employment, DWP/DHSC, Table 4, April to June 2017
Notes:
- For those who are out of work the reason they are out of work may not be due to their disability.
- The Department have announced the planned publication of Official Statistics on 24th March on ‘Employment of disabled people 2019’. These statistics give a detailed analysis and break downs of the number of disabled people in employment.
- Disability status is defined according to the Government Statistical Service harmonised standard, in line with the Equality Act 2010 core definition.
- 'Main health condition' refers to the health condition that the survey respondent considers their main condition.
- Out of work refers to both those who are unemployed and economically inactive.
- Figures are for the working age population, comprised of people aged 16 to 64.
- Data is subject to sampling variation and is not seasonally adjusted.
- Precision of statistics is limited by small sample sizes.