Disability: adults unable to work due to illness/disability

Chart 1 shows the percentage of adults of working age in each health board area who were in receipt of incapacity benefit or severe disability allowance in 2004. Nationally, around 10% of the working age population fell into this category with, at a health board level, the figures ranging from 5.5% in Shetland to 14.5% in the Greater Glasgow area.

Chart 2 shows the same data (% of the working-age population in receipt of incapacity benefit/severe disability allowance) broken down by council area. There is more than three fold variation between the area with the lowest proportion of adults falling into this category (Shetland: 5.5%) and the area with the highest (Glasgow City: 17%).

The same data are presented, for Scotland only, as a trend between 2000 and 2005. As is apparent, there was very little change in the proportion of the working age population in receipt of these benefits between the start (10.7%) and end of this period (10.3%).