Disability Matters

Our Employment Law team’s Disability Matters Campaign aims to stamp out disability discrimination in the workplace. This campaign will concentrate on the challenges neurodiverse people face in the workplace.

Disability at work – the numbers

Despite disability discrimination in the workplace being outlawed we are dealing with increasing numbers of employees experiencing discrimination. A House of Commons report from March 2024 reported that over ten million working age people reported having a disability, which is nearly a quarter of the working age population, and an increase of over 450,000 from the year before.

The latest figures from the Department of Work and Pensions found that just 45% of people with neurodiversity are in employment, compared with 53% for all disabled people, and 82% for people without disabilities.

The 2025 City and Guilds Neurodiversity Index Report found that 35% of neurodivergent employees had no support when starting their jobs, and that 37% of managers had not received training on supporting their neurodivergent staff, leaving many unprepared.

Two in five neurodivergent employees said they experienced challenges at work every single day, reinforcing the need for workplaces to put adjustments in place to ensure that all their staff are supported.

A 2024 study from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that one in five neurodivergent employees had experienced harassment or discrimination at work because of their neurodivergence.

A 2020 study carried out by Citizens Advice found that disabled people were twice as likely to face redundancy at work. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) also found that disabled people earn 13.8% less on average than non-disabled people – almost £2 less per hour.