Disabled people are six times less likely to get work and almost twice as likely to lose their jobs within a year than non-disabled people, a study has found.

One in three disabled people or those with illnesses like depression, back pain and diabetes are out of work just one year after starting a new job.

Similarly, one in six of those who become ill or disabled are unemployed within a year.

The study, by researchers at the London School of Economics (LSE), suggests that deterioration in health, employers' attitudes and disincentives in the benefit system may be responsible for the high figures.

Benefit rules should help people stay in work by being flexible when people's conditions fluctuate

Tania Burchardt, LSE

More than one in eight people of working age are disabled or have a debilitating medical condition.

About 3% of those in employment become "limited in daily activities" each year.

Around 60% of disabled people are out of work. Most want a job. However, they are six times less likely to get a job compared to those without a disability.

Tania Burchardt, a research fellow at the LSE who carried out the study, said: "I think there are a whole range of reasons for this.

"People with a disability are not immune from the many problems that other people starting a new job face.

"They are also more likely to go into jobs in the manual sector which tend to be associated with shorter tenures.

"But they also face problems of impairment and may also face problems as a result of the attitudes of employers and employees."

She said many employers were unaware of schemes that provide them with financial assistance to employ disabled people.

Benefit support

She added that many disabled people find that they lose out financially if they move from benefit support to employment.

"Benefit rules should help people stay in work by being flexible when people's conditions fluctuate - as with mental illness or degenerative diseases."

The study, carried out on behalf of the Joseph Rowntree Research Foundation, also found that half those who are disabled have net incomes that are less than half the national average. Some 40% are living below the poverty line.

Ms Burchardt added: "The living standards of disabled people, especially those with more severe impairments, will continue to be well below the rest of society unless benefit levels are linked to national prosperity."

The Department for Education and Employment said it was doing all it could to help disabled people find work.

Around �195 million was being invested in the New Deal for Disabled People programme, and plans were being developed to help people with prolonged illness or disability into employment, a spokesman said.

But the Conservative Party has criticised the government's approach.

Shadow social security secretary David Willetts said the study had identified "some real problems".

He said disabled people have had a "raw deal".