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Unemployment: Chronic Illnesses

Asked by Neil Duncan-JordanLabourDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled Answered 17 November 2025UIN 89061

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Written Statement of 5 November 2025 on Keep Britain Working Review: Government Response, HCWS1020, if he will publish a categorisation of the nature of the health problems affecting the additional 800,000 people that have become economically inactive since 2019.

Answered by Dame Diana Johnson

DWP publishes data, as part of its Employment of Disabled People Official Statistics publication, on the number of people who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness. These statistics are broken down by main and main or secondary long-term health condition (Tables EIA016 and EIA017). The latest data covers the period from April to June 2013 to the same quarter of 2025.

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