Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment has he made of the potential impact of arthritis and other musculoskeletal conditions on (a) access to employment, (b) levels of economic inactivity and (c) levels of workplace absence.

DWP publishes annual official statistics to monitor employment outcomes for disabled people including those with ‘Musculoskeletal conditions’. These statistics show that working age (16 to 64) disabled people with ‘Musculoskeletal conditions’ are less likely to be in employment compared to the working age population as a whole. The employment rate for working age disabled people with a ‘Musculoskeletal condition’ was 52.3% in 2024/25 compared to 75.4% for all people aged 16 to 64.

Source: The employment of disabled people 2025 (Table LMS004) - GOV.UK and Nomis - Query Tool - annual population survey

In 2024/25 2.0 million people aged 16 to 64 who reported a ‘Musculoskeletal condition’ were economically inactive. This represents 39.9% of all people with a ‘Musculoskeletal condition’ compared to 19.1% of people without a ‘Musculoskeletal condition’ who were economically inactive.

Source: The employment of disabled people 2025 (Table EIA009) - GOV.UK

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also publishes statistics on Sickness absence in the UK labour market from the same source – the Labour Force Survey. The latest statistics show that in 2024 26.5 million working days were lost in the UK due to a ‘Musculoskeletal condition' which equates to 17.8% of all working days lost.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is the main source of data for people with ‘Musculoskeletal conditions’ in the UK labour market. This includes people with arthritis, back pain, neck and upper limb problems. However, it is not possible to specifically identify those with arthritis from the LFS therefore this data is not readily available from published sources.