BRITAIN is getting sicker. New figures today showed the number of disabled people unable to work rose by 260,000 in a year.

Disability campaigners and Unison urged Labour to invest in the NHS to tackle rising levels of long-term illness after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) revealed rates of economic inactivity are increasing among disabled people.

The figures showed that overall, the number of disabled people in employment grew, but an increase in the number of working-age disabled people meant a rise in the disability economic inactivity rate.

There were 5.5 million disabled people in employment in Britain between July and September this year, the department said — an annual increase of 310,000.

But the number of working-age disabled people rose by 580,000 in that period.

The department said this meant the 0.1 per cent increase in the disability economic inactivity rate equated to 260,000 more economically inactive disabled people in the three months to September this year, compared to the same period last year.

Disabled People Against Cuts co-founder Linda Burnip said: “It’s hardly surprising that more disabled people are unable to work after 14 years of austerity, loss of mental health services and treatments, rocketing waiting lists for other medical treatments, increased poverty and homelessness, added to which the policies of the new Labour government so far have only led to increasing levels of despair that nothing will change for the better for anyone on low income of any kind.

“None of these things make people’s health better, nor do they provide more suitable employment.”

Unison head of policy Sampson Low said: “Bringing down NHS waiting lists and investing in schemes like access to work, which help employers with adaptations, should make it easier for disabled people to return to the labour market.

“But employers must not shirk their responsibilities. Good bosses know creating a work environment that allows employees to thrive is good for staff and for business.”

The term economically inactive is used to describe people who are part of the labour market but unable to start a job or have chosen not to look for employment.

It is different from the unemployed, which refers to people who are actively seeking work but do not have a job.

The data also revealed that only three in 10 autistic people are in employment.

National Autistic Society assistant director Tim Nicholls said: “That’s among the lowest of any group of disabled people and remains stubbornly unchanged, despite years of government promises.

“There are still too many barriers preventing autistic people getting and keeping jobs, even though the vast majority of autistic people want to work.”

The DWP said its research showed economically inactive disabled people were more likely to want a job than economically inactive non-disabled people, at 20.6 per cent compared to 14.4 per cent.

Long-term sickness was the main reason given by disabled people for being economically inactive.

Only 1.4 per cent of economically inactive non-disabled people gave long-term sickness as their main reason.

The DWP added that its latest data showed that nearly one in four of the working-age population are classed as disabled and that the number of people reporting a long-term health condition and the number classed as disabled continued to rise.

National disability charity Sense said that while it was “promising” that more disabled people are in work, “working isn’t right for all disabled people.”

Head of policy Harriet Edwards added there remained “far too many deep-rooted barriers that mean disabled people who can work are more likely to be unemployed or to be in roles that do nothing to help them reach their full potential and earning power.”

She added: “Unfair recruiting practices and a complete lack of specialist assistive technology in job centres perpetuate this waste of talent — and it’s time to take action.”

Labour has drafted the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, which the party says aims to “enshrine the full right to equal pay in law” for disabled people and introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting.

The government has also said it is investing more money in the NHS, to increase the number of appointments and operations it can offer.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the NHS would receive an extra £25 billion this year and next — with reducing waits a priority — in last month’s Budget, but also pledged to continue Tory “reform” of the work capability assessment that threatens to cut the incomes of hundreds of thousands of disabled people.