A record proportion of people out of work due to sickness or disability has driven the number of jobless households to over three million under Labour, new figures show.
Almost 40 per cent of people living in a house where not a single adult family member is employed is now out of work because they are sick or disabled.
Meanwhile the proportion of working-age adults not in a job because they were unemployed, retired early or because they were studying full time fell last year.
The proportion of people in a jobless household not working because they are sick or disabled has ballooned since the Covid pandemic and is now at its highest level since records began in 2006.
New figures that lay bare Britain’s worklessness crisis show the total number of jobless households increased by 129,000 in the year to December 2024.
Workless households increased from 2,955,658 (13.9 per cent of all households) in 2023 to 3,085,497 (14.4 per cent of all households) in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is the highest figure for almost a decade.
In the year to December 2024 a record 39.2 per cent of people in jobless households were out of work due to sickness/disability, up from 38 per cent in the year to December 2023.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was forced to abandon plans to trim the benefits bill by £5billion earlier this month
Disabled people and their supporters gather outside the Houses of Parliament for a protest against cuts to welfare benefits as MPs debated and voted on the government’s Welfare Reform Bill at its second reading in London, United Kingdom on July 01, 2025
An official forecast published alongside the Government’s benefits bill revealed that ministers believe the number of welfare claims will soar by 40 per cent in the next four years
This has increased by almost 10 percentage points in the last two decades – from 30.9 per cent in 2006 – while the proportion of people who are unemployed has fallen and the proportion who have retired early, are looking after family or are studying has remained largely unchanged.
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately said that the figures should set Britain’s ‘warning lights flashing red’ as ‘the takers are beginning to outweigh the makers’.
She said: ‘Year after year [under the Conservatives] worklessness went down. As ever under Labour, the numbers are going in the wrong direction.
‘And it’s not just stats – there’s a human cost behind the numbers. Families dependent on benefits, children growing up without the role model of working parents, and ever higher taxes hitting the pockets of those who are in work to pay for these benefits.
‘This can’t continue or it will bankrupt Britain – but Labour’s welfare debacle last month shows Keir Starmer is too weak to get a grip of the benefits bill.
‘One thing is clear – Labour isn’t working.’
The cost of sickness and disability benefits for working-age people has ballooned by £20billion since the pandemic, with projections showing this is due to hit £100billion by 2029-30, up from £65billion in 2023-24.
Labour’s attempts to slash £5billion from the nation’s welfare bill fell flat earlier this month after Sir Keir Starmer faced the biggest rebellion of his premiership and the Government is yet to set out an alternative.
The ONS data shows worklessness is on the rise across the UK as the proportion of jobless households increased in 59 per cent of local areas between 2023 and 2024, compared with 41 per cent where it decreased.
North Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire, South Tyneside, and Dundee City appeared in the 10 areas with the highest percentage of workless households in both 2023 and 2024.
Kingston Upon Thames and Reading appeared in the 10 areas with the lowest percentage of workless households in both 2023 and 2024.
