§ Mr. Hancockasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many registered disabled people have been unemployed in each year from 1978: and if he will give a breakdown by category of disability.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThe numbers of unemployed registered disabled people, broken down by category of disability, for each year from 1978 to 1982 are as follows. Figures are for April of each year. Comprehensive figures for all unemployed registered disabled people have not been available since the introduction of voluntary registration in October 1982.
Since then, the figures for unemployed registered disabled people registered for work at jobcentres, with no breakdown by category of disability, have been collected quarterly. The total figures over that period which are, of course, not directly comparable with those in the table are:
573W
Numbers March 1983 73,004 March 1984 42,425 March 1985 31,890
Category of disability Year 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 Mental sub-normality 3,270 3,094 3,127 3,593 3,647 Others Deaf without speech 586 480 561 835 947 Deaf with speech 601 526 554 823 925 Hard of hearing 1,078 976 1,062 1,358 1,453 Blind 864 833 788 914 929 Partially sighted 2,938 2,645 2,577 3,207 3,593 Miscellaneous, including diabetes 2,512 2,565 2,495 3,054 3,317 TOTAL 70,765 63,600 61,068 73,424 76,939