MORE than 25,000 households in Bradford are out of work, according to latest statistics.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) estimate that last year 17 per cent of households in the area were workless, slightly higher than the UK-wide figure of 15 per cent.

In Yorkshire and the Humber, the figure was 16 per cent.

According to the ONS, a household is defined as workless if every person aged from 16-64 in the house is not in employment at the time of the annual population survey.

Across Yorkshire and the Humber, the most common reason people gave for not being in work was being sick or disabled - 30 per cent of out-of-work individuals cited illness or disability as the primary reason for not working. Students made up 13 per cent of the group, and 15 per cent were early retirees. Just 14 per cent of jobless people in the area were officially ‘unemployed’ - looking for work and able to start within two weeks.

A spokesperson from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said: “The unemployment rate remains at its lowest since 1971, but we’re committed to ensuring that everyone who wants to work has the opportunity to do so - while making sure there is a safety net for those who can’t.”

The DWP has also said that the majority of employment growth has been in both full-time and permanent roles - but experts are still concerned about improving job security.

Head of Economics at the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Kate Bell said: “Some of these officially ‘workless’ households are actually stuck in a revolving door between short-term, insecure jobs and periods without any work.”

David Leese, policy analysis manager at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), which is based in York and has carried out extensive research in Bradford, said that workless families in particular are at a much higher risk of poverty.

Figures from the DWP for 2016-17 show that in workless households almost 75 per cent of children are growing up in poverty, compared to only 5 per cent of children with two working parents.

“If a child lives in poverty, it affects their health, their education, their family relationships and their plans for the future,” Mr Leese said.

“It’s not right that any child lives in such insecure circumstances.