Poverty, worklessness and health and wellbeing
Overview
Economic inactivity has increased both locally and nationally since the COVID pandemic, especially for residents aged 50+. In June 2024 there were 64,600 economically inactive residents of working age (23.5% of the working age population compared with 21.0% for England as a whole) - 10,000 of which want to work.
The overall picture of economic inactivity is worse for women as the gap to the national average is wider (around 4%) than for men (around 2%) and continues to diverge. Poor health and wellbeing, and worklessness are inextricably linked, with a high proportion of economically inactive residents suffering from one or more limiting health condition. This is especially the case for residents aged 50+.
Health inequalities are especially acute in our most deprived neighbourhoods - with males living in our most deprived wards experiencing a difference in life expectancy of 8.6 years than those living in our most affluent wards. Health Equity North found in their Health for Wealth report that ill-health in the North of England:
- reduced the probability of remaining in employment by 4.9% (3.5% in rest of England),
- reduced relative weekly wages by 32.4% (19.5% in rest of England),
- reduced household income by 13.3% (no effect in rest of England), and
- amongst those who remained in employment, reduced hours worked by 5.6% (7.9% in rest of England).
Kirklees has three neighbourhoods within the wealthiest quarter in England but also a quarter of neighbourhoods fall within the poorest 10%. Nationally we know that disposable income - our best measure of living standards - for the bottom 10% of households barely changed over the 20 years to 2020 while all other groups saw improvements of around 25%.
