← Who is in this group?

Who are we? · Groups · United Kingdom

Where do disabled individuals sit in the income distribution?

22% of disabled individuals were in the lowest-income fifth before housing costs, against 20% of everyone; 13% were in the highest (April 2024 to March 2025). See how this compares after housing costs.

Evidence last reviewed 31 October 2026

Where they sit

Disabled individuals: share in each income fifth, after housing costs, April 2024 to March 2025
Survey-based evidence · Family Resources Survey, April 2024 to March 2025
  • Lowest-income fifth20%

    Everyone: 20%

  • Second fifth24%

    Everyone: 20%

  • Middle fifth23%

    Everyone: 20%

  • Fourth fifth19%

    Everyone: 20%

  • Highest-income fifth14%

    Everyone: 20%

If this group had the same incomes as everyone else, each bar would be 20%. About 16.8 million people were in this group.

Show the workings and sources
Disabled individuals by income fifth, AHC
FifthShare of group
Lowest-income fifth20.3%
Second fifth23.9%
Middle fifth22.6%
Fourth fifth19.4%
Highest-income fifth13.8%

HBAI Table 3.1db (Disability and age group). Row label as published: “Disabled individuals”.

  • Survey-based: Family Resources Survey 2024/25, UK private households. DWP publishes no confidence intervals for these breakdowns; small groups have wider uncertainty.
  • From FYE 2022 HBAI links survey answers to DWP and HMRC records; earlier years are not comparable (DWP note 1).
  • Fifths rank people, not households: each fifth holds a fifth of individuals, so households in it differ in number and size.
  • Ethnic group is that of the head of household, and ethnic group and region rows are 3-year averages; their sizes are pooled and differ slightly from the latest-year total (DWP note 81).
  • Disability is self-reported limiting long-term illness or condition (DWP note 38).

How has this changed?

No long-run series for this group

DWP’s published time-series tables do not include this group. A series could be built from DWP’s Stat-Xplore service, which holds the years to 2020/21 and from 2021/22 as separate datasets.

Other groups

Income fifths: Lowest-income fifth · Second fifth · Middle fifth · Fourth fifth · Highest-income fifth

All groups · Income, low income and food

Built from official tables and checked by automated tests; it has not yet had independent analytical review. About these numbers.