In 2023/24, 57 percent of households in Northern Ireland were receiving a type of state benefit, the highest in the United Kingdom in that reporting year. By comparison, 39 percent of households in London were receiving benefits, the lowest in the UK.

In the 3 years to March 2021, white British families were the most likely to receive a type of state support.

As of January 2025, there were estimated to be approximately 7.4 million people on Universal Credit in Great Britain, of which over 1.12 million were aged between 35 and 39, the highest of the provided age groups.

Approximately 1.73 million people claimed unemployment benefits in the United Kingdom in the first quarter of 2025, one of the lowest claimant counts since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns played havoc with the UK economy, leading to the sharp rise in jobless claims seen here in the second quarter of 2020.

This is the proportion of all households that are in receipt of housing benefit. Statistical disclosure control has been applied to this data which guards against the identification of an individual claimant. 0 or 0.00 denotes a nil or negligible number of claimants or award amount, based on 4 or fewer claimants. Household: a single person, or a group of people living at the same address who have the address as their only or main residence and either share one main meal a day or share living accommodation (or both).Figures are based on the claimant's place of residence. Claimants registered as living abroad or where the location is unknown are excluded. Housing Benefit claimant statistics are derived from the Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE), as at the second Thursday of each month. SHBE is compiled from monthly returns of housing benefit and council tax benefit claimants from each individual local authority. Recording and clerical errors can occur within SHBE - for this reason, no reliance should be placed on very small numbers obtained through Stat-Xplore.Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

As of April 2025, there were over 7.7 million people on Universal Credit in Great Britain, compared with almost 6.7 million a year earlier.

This statistic shows the share families that have received income-related benefits in the United Kingdom (UK) in the period from 2015 to 2018, by ethnic group of household head. In this period, 29 percent of the families with head of the family being black/African black/Caribbean or British black received some form of income-related benefit.

Age-standardised percentages of people who received a social security benefit by health conditions and sociodemographic characteristics, using linked 2011 Census, primary care and benefits data. Experimental Statistics.

39.8% of workers from the Indian ethnic group were in 'professional' jobs in 2021 – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups in this role.

The number of unemployed people who have been claiming benefit continuously for more than 12 months divided by the total number of unemployed people claiming benefits, expressed as a percentage. Claimant count, age and duration data are based on computerised claims. Therefore while total unemployed claimants is available including clerical claims, for the purpose of this calculation both the numerator and denominator are restricted to computerised claims. To monitor the policy aim of tackling unemployment, focusing on long term unemployment. The indicator is based on the claimant count, which includes the number of people who are claiming Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) or National Insurance Credits. Unemployment is a significant risk factor for poor physical and mental health and therefore a major determinant of health inequalities. It is associated with morbidity, injuries, and premature mortality, especially through increased risk of coronary heart disease. It is also related to depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide. In addition, unemployment reinforces inequalities in health by social class. Legacy unique identifier: P01081

Percentage of people claiming key benefits as a proportion of the working age population. The information is derived from count data which are already held on the Neighbourhood Statistics website: Working Age Client Group (August 2004) provided by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Mid-2004 small area population estimates data provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The data includes breakdowns by statistical group, gender and 3 bands of age (16-24, 25-49 and 50 and over). The small area population estimates used to derived the percentages are also included in the dataset.

Source: Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

Publisher: Neighbourhood Statistics

Geographies: Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA), Local Authority District (LAD), Government Office Region (GOR), National

Geographic coverage: England and Wales

Time coverage: 2001 to 2007

Type of data: Administrative data

In 2022, the highest and lowest rates of economic inactivity were in the combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi (33%) and white 'other’ (15%) ethnic groups.

As of the first quarter of 2025, there were estimated to be approximately 7.4 million people on Universal Credit in Great Britain, of which 4.31 million were women, and 3.1 million were men.

Legacy unique identifier: P01045

Proportion of people claiming Universal Credit who are in employment. This is based on the count of the number of people on Universal Credit on the second Thursday of each month (completed the Universal Credit claim process and accepted their Claimant Commitment) and have not had a closure of their claim recorded for this spell. A closure of their claim would be recorded either at the request of the individual or if their entitlement to Universal Credit ends, for example, if they no longer satisfy the financial conditions to receive Universal Credit as they have capital over the threshold. To allow sufficient time for earnings information to be gathered on all claimants, figures for the latest month in the series will not be available until the next release. Figures provided for starts show the Jobcentre Plus office recorded at the start of the claim, whereas the figures for the number of people on Universal Credit are representative of the current Jobcentre Plus office that the claimant is attending. It is possible for people to have started on Universal Credit in one office and have moved to another office during their claim, and for this reason, the number of people on Universal Credit can be higher than the starts figure for any particular office, however it is more noticeable when numbers are low. You may be eligible to get Universal Credit if you’re on a low income or out of work, 18 or over (there are some exceptions if you’re 16 to 17), you’re under State Pension age (or your partner is), you and your partner have £16,000 or less in savings between you, and you live in the UK. Universal Credit has replaced Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for most people. It is still possible to claim JSA if you are 18 or over and under State Pension age. As long as you are actively looking for a full-time job and are out of work, or are working less than 16 hours a week. These standalone JSA claims are separately reported. Statistical disclosure control has been applied with Stat-Xplore, which guards against the identification of an individual claimant.Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

Between 2018 and 2022, people in households in the ‘other’, Asian and black ethnic groups were the most likely to be in persistent low income, both before and after housing costs, out of all ethnic groups.

In the twelve months to June 2024, the claimant count rate of the West Midlands Metropolitan County was 6.8 percent, which was the highest among Metropolitan Counties, and Greater London.

(CDID: ZWJX) Month - Claimant count and vacancies time series This dataset contains series for the Claimant Count (which measures the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits) and vacancies.