Universal credit claimants soar by over a million in a year, new figures show

The number of universal credit (UC) claimants has soared to 8.3 million people – up from 7.2 million at the same time last year, new government figures show.

That is a 1.1 million increase in the space of a year, and is the largest annual rise in total claimants since early in the COVID pandemic – the 12 months to April 2021.

UC is a payment to help with living costs and is available for people in work who are on low incomes, as well as those who are out of work or cannot work.

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There has also been a sharp rise in the number of people claiming UC who have “no work requirements”.

Four million people were in this category in October, up from 2.9 million people a year ago, statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions show.

Claimants in the “no work requirements” bracket are people in full-time education, over the state pension age, with a child aged under one, and who are considered to have no prospect of work – they make up 48.7% of all claimants.

Other claimants must do certain work-related activities to receive the UC benefit, such as attending interviews to plan for their return to work or be actively searching for work.

The number of people in the searching for work category stood at 1.6 million in October, and the number of working people on UC stood at 2.2 million last month – both unchanged year-on-year.

The government has previously said it “inherited a broken welfare system and spiralling, unsustainable benefits bill” from the Conservatives, and is working on reforms including tightening rules on who can claim UC.

The new data on the huge increase in UC claimants comes on the day it was announced that the unemployment rate has risen to 5% in the three months to September – the highest rate since the pandemic in 2020.

Following a commitment to publish a breakdown of UC claimants by immigration status, which was first done in July, the DWP has published updated figures showing that the majority were British and Irish nationals and those who live or work in the UK without any immigration restrictions.

They accounted for 84.3% of all UC claimants in October, up from 82.9% in October 2024 – and of these, 99.9% were UK citizens and around a third (32%) were in employment.

9.2% of claimants have EU Settled Status in the UK, which is down from 10.4% a year ago.

And 2.6% were people who had indefinite leave to remain in the UK, up from 2.2% the previous year.

Refugees accounted for 1.5% of UC claimants, which is unchanged from the same point last year.

A DWP spokesperson said: “The number of people receiving universal credit has been increasing as we have invited tens of thousands of people each month to move from legacy benefits as they become phased out.

“We’re determined to get more people off welfare and into work. That’s why we are stepping up our plan to Get Britain Working with the most ambitious employment reforms in a generation. This includes modernising jobcentres and providing tailored support through the Connect to Work programme.

“Every eligible young person who has been on universal credit for 18 months without earning or learning will also be offered guaranteed paid work through our Youth Guarantee.”