The disability employment gap is the difference between disabled and non-disabled employment rates - 29.7 percentage points in the UK in April-June 2025 (52.8% of disabled people in work versus 82.5%). Those are the headline figures from the DWP and ONS official statistics, and they are the numbers a board paper or a Disability Confident submission should quote. Always date the figure to the quarter, because it is drawn from the Labour Force Survey and revised every three months.
The gap is widening, not closing
This is the qualifier most sources miss. The gap rose 1.1 percentage points in the year to April-June 2025, up from 28.6 points a year earlier, so the roughly 28-point figures still circulating from 2023 and 2024 are stale and understate the position. The DWP notes that this particular year-on-year rise was not statistically significant on its own, but the longer trend is real: the gap has been drifting wider since 2020 rather than narrowing. If your last business case used a 2023 number, refresh it before the next board meeting.
What the percentage-point gap actually counts
A 29.7-point gap is a difference between two rates, not a headcount. Behind it sit two numbers that frame the opportunity better:
- 5.5 million disabled people aged 16 to 64 were already in work in April-June 2025 - down about 200,000 on a year earlier.
- A far larger group is out of work but able and willing to work, which is the pool an employer is actually recruiting from when it closes the gap.
That reframing is the point for an employer. The DWP itself describes the gap as a pool of untapped skills and talent. It also notes that the cost of most reasonable adjustments is low, and that keeping an experienced disabled employee is usually cheaper than recruiting and training a replacement. The gap is a recruitment and retention opportunity, not just a statistic.
How an employer acts on it
Two practical levers close your share of the gap. First, the legal baseline: you must make reasonable adjustments so that a disabled worker is not put at a substantial disadvantage compared with a non-disabled worker (the duty in section 20 of the Equality Act 2010). Second, the visible commitment: the government’s Disability Confident scheme gives you a structured route from committed through to leader, and a badge candidates recognise.
Where the law comes from
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This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.