Speeches

Tania Mathias – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of people with a (a) physical disability, (b) mental disability and (c) physical and mental disability in (i) the UK and (ii) Twickenham constituency.

Justin Tomlinson

a) and b) Based on the latest available figures from the Department’s Family Resources Survey 2013/2014, an estimated 11.9 million people in the UK reported a disability. The table below provides more detailed information about the types of impairment that disabled people reported.

Table 1: Disability prevalence disaggregated by impairment type UK, 2013/14

Millions of individuals

Impairment type

2013/14

Vision

1.5

Hearing

1.7

Mobility

6.5

Dexterity

3.4

Learning

1.5

Memory

1.9

Mental health

2.1

Stamina/breathing/fatigue

4.5

Social/behavioural

0.8

Other

1.8

All with at least one impairment

11.9

Source: Family Resources Survey 2013/14

Respondents can report, and be affected by, more than one type of impairment.

c) Using the FRS an estimated 2.7 million people in the UK reported both a physical and mental disability. This estimate includes all individuals currently living in private households. It does not include individuals living in communal establishments (e.g. care homes).

For the purposes of this analysis, the following categories have been classified as physical disabilities;

Vision, Hearing, Mobility, Dexterity, and Stamina/Breathing/Fatigue.

The following categories have been classified as mental disabilities;

Learning, Memory, Mental Health, and Social/Behavioural

Note that disabilities classified as "other" have not been included in part c).

The department cannot provide figures in the format requested for Twickenham.

Aggregate level estimates of people with disability aged 16-64 in Twickenham can be found on the Nomis website based on the Annual Population Survey: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/select/getdatasetbytheme.asp?opt=3&theme=&subgrp=