Changes to disability variables on the Annual Population Survey

The estimates of the economic activity of people with disabilities published from the Annual Population Survey (APS) have underwent a change in the questions in April 2013. Changes to the wording of the disability questions in order to bring the LFS/APS more into line with the definitions and questions used in other household surveys in the UK (see Table below).

The discontinuity in April 2013 resulted from a change in the reporting behaviour of survey respondents following changes to the wording of the questionnaire. These changes brought the LFS/APS into line with the Government Statistical Service (GSS) Harmonised Standards for questions on disability and also enabled the LFS estimates to be consistent with the definitions used in 2010 Equality Act. The 2010 Equality Act superseded the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 which was the basis of the previously published LFS estimates. Estimates published prior to the April 2013 to March 2014 period should not be treated as a timeseries due to these discontinuities.

The changes required to incorporate these questions were delayed on the APS until the last quarter of 2013 so will not be available for publication until the October 2013 to September 2014 dataset is released on Nomis in January 2015. ONS is currently in the process of reweighting all APS datasets to take into account the results of the 2011 Census. When this is completed in early 2015 new disability estimates will be released for the April 2013 to March 2014 and July 2013 to June 2014 periods.

For further information please contact:

Jonathan Knight (jonathan.knight@ons.gsi.gov.uk)

01633 455253

or

Bob Watson (bob.watson@ons.gsi.gov.uk)

01633 455070