LRD guides and handbook November 2013

Promoting equality for disabled workers - a guide for trade union reps

Chapter 1

Recurring conditions

Recurring conditions are covered by the EA 2010, as long as there is evidence that the condition is “likely” to recur and have a substantial and adverse effect on the ability to carry out day-to-day activities. For example, someone with rheumatoid arthritis may suffer adverse effects for a few weeks. If the effects then stop but are likely to recur, they are “long-term” for the purposes of the EA 2010 definition of a disability.

Conditions which recur qualify as “long-term” for the purposes of the EA 2010, provided that their effects are likely to recur over a minimum period of twelve months or more.

The guide from the Office for Disability Issues uses the following example to illustrate this:

A man has bipolar affective disorder, a recurring form of depression. The first episode occurs in months one and two of a 13-month period. The second episode takes place in month 13. This man will satisfy the requirements of the definition in respect of the meaning of long-term, because the adverse effects have recurred beyond 12 months after the first occurrence and are therefore treated as having continued for the whole period (in this case, a period of 13 months).

www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/EqualityAct/odi_equality_act_guidance_may.pdf