Unemployed people looking for work were almost twice as likely as those in employment to have a limiting long-standing illness or disability, the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has revealed.
In 2012, the ONS found that 17% of unemployed people who were searching for a job were likely to have a long standing illness or disability compared with 9% who had health conditions and were in work.
People with higher incomes were less likely than those on lower incomes to have a limiting long-standing illness or disability.
In 2012, just 6% of those with an income of £50,000 or more had a limiting long-standing illness or disability, compared with 30% of those with an income of up to £10,000.
The ONS said as expected, health was strongly associated with age. In 2012, 67% of those aged 75 and over had a long-standing illness or disability. This compared with 14% of those aged 16 to 24.
In addition, the research found those from white ethnic groups were almost twice as likely as those from non-white ethnic groups to have a limiting long-standing illness or disability (20% compared with 11%).
Meanwhile, people living in Wales (26%) were most likely to have a limiting long-standing illness or disability, when compared with other regions of Great Britain.
In 2012, 34% of adults living in Great Britain said that they had a long-standing illness or disability, and 19% said that they had a limiting long-standing illness.
The research also found physical health conditions were more common than mental health conditions. However, there was little difference in the proportions whose vision (4.1%), memory (3.8%) or mental health (3.6%) were affected by physical or mental health conditions lasting (or expected to last) 12 months or more.
Meanwhile, recent research from the charity Scope found that 42% of disabled people told us that they had lost out on a job because of the way employers perceived their impairment "every time" or "a lot of the time".
