§ Earl Russellasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the rate of long-term illness and disability among lone parents out of work; and what change there has been in this figure since 1991. [HL381]
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter to the Earl Russell from the Executive Director of the Office for National Statistics, John Kidgell, dated 24 July 2001.
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question on the rate of long-term illness and disability among lone parents out of work (HL381). I have been asked to reply in his absence.
Estimates of lone parents with a long-term disability are available from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), and are included in its household dataset. Those not in employment consist of those who are unemployed or inactive. Data for 1991 are unavailable as disability status using the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) definition is only available on a consistent basis from 1998.
In autumn (September-November) 2000, the estimate of the rate of long-term disability among lone parents who were not in employment was 32.1 per cent. This is an increase of 5.4 percentage points since autumn 1998.