
London, 4 November 2026: Commenting on the Department for Work and Pensions annual statistics on the employment of disabled people, which showed the number of disabled people in employment falling year-on-year in every quarter from April-June 2025 to January-March 2026, the first such decline since at least 2013.
Becky O’Connor, Head of Pensions at PensionBee, said: “For a full year, the number of disabled people in work fell, representing the first sustained decline in over a decade. Although the latest quarterly figures suggest this decline may be reversing, until we understand what drove disabled people out of work in 2025, we can’t be confident it won’t happen again.
“The Government does not suggest reasons, however it’s possible that higher employer costs, a cooler jobs market and a shift in how many people report being disabled.
“On DWP’s prevalence-adjusted measure, the disability employment gap has widened since 2019. Disabled people who are out of work move into work at a third of the rate of everyone else, and DWP’s figures suggest around one in five disabled people have not been employed for over 10 years. Disabled workers were also nearly twice as likely to move out of work as non-disabled workers (8.3% versus 4.8%).
“With such high prevalence of disability in the working age population, creating manageable work opportunities, especially for those out of work due to long-term sickness, is vital for the economy and for the financial resilience of individuals who may be able to perform some work but not withstand the rigours of formal employment hours or settings.
“Every year out of work, or stuck in part-time work below the auto-enrolment threshold, is a year of pension saving that never happens. Our Sick, Tired and Never Retired? research found that 48% of disabled people surveyed have no pension beyond the State Pension. Our modelling suggests someone disabled from childhood and working part-time could retire with around £245,000 less in pension savings than a non-disabled full-time worker.
“The gap is widest among 50 to 64-year-olds, the group being asked to work for longer. Employment support is not enough to make up for missed savings. That is why we are calling for the £10,000 auto-enrolment threshold to be removed and for a disability pension credit, similar to the credits already available to carers.”







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