More than half of disabled people in East Sussex out of work

File photo dated 26/01/18 of money. Statutory sick pay (SSP) is down by almost a tenth in real terms since the Conservatives came to power, research for the SNP has found. The party also said the UK is the "sick man of Europe" when it comes to supporting ill employees. Issue date: Monday August 14, 2023.

More than half of disabled people of working age in East Sussex are not in employment, new figures suggest.

An equalities charity has said the labour market is "rigged" against people with disabilities.

Figures from the Department of Work and Pensions suggest there were around 90,000 disabled people aged 16 to 64 in East Sussex as of June – 53% of whom were not in work.

This compares to 16% among those without disabilities.

Across the UK there were 9.6 million disabled people – a rise of 1.9 million on June 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

The gap in employment rates between the disabled and non-disabled population has remained steady, but is currently slightly smaller than in 2013-14, when local figures were first available.

At this point, the same figures show 46% of around 54,000 disabled people in East Sussex were out of work.

Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, said: "The UK Government previously had a commitment to halve the gap, but stepped away from this ambitious target. There is a lot the Government can do to support disabled people into work and to stop disabled workers falling out of the labour market."

She urged support for the Disability Employment Charter, which calls on the Government to introduce new measures to support disabled workers.

These include requiring companies to report the difference in pay between disabled and non-disabled staff, and improve workplace adjustments for those who need them.

Rates vary significantly across the UK – in the North East, 45% of disabled people were in employment, compared to 60% in the East of England.

In the South East, 59% of disabled people were in work.