Universal Credit: Claimants

Universal Credit: Claimants

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.

This data has been taken from LGInform at http://lginform.local.gov.uk/ data reference ID 5470

The figures show the numbers of people claiming unemployment benefits aged between 25-49 and living in Plymouth. The data is monthly and shows data ranging from Jan 2013 to May 2017.

Number of people claiming unemployment related benefits, aged 25-49 - This is the total number of people aged 24-49 claiming unemployment related benefits (Claimant Count).

The Claimant Count is a measure of the number of people claiming benefits principally for the reason of being unemployed, based on administrative data from the benefits system.

From April 2015, the Claimant Count includes all Universal Credit claimants who are required to seek work and be available for work, as well as all Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) claimants, between May 2013 and March 2015, the Claimant Count includes all out of work Universal Credit claimants as well as all JSA claimants prior to this the Claimant Count is a count of the number of people claiming JSA.

The Claimant Count includes people who claim unemployment related benefits but who do not receive payment. For example some claimants will have had their benefits stopped for a limited period of time by Jobcentre Plus. Some people claim JSA in order to receive National Insurance Credits.

The Claimant Count does not attempt to measure unemployment, which is a concept defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as all those who are out of work, actively seeking work and available to start work.

However, since the people claiming benefits are generally a particular subset of the unemployed, the Claimant Count can provide a useful indication of how unemployment is likely to vary between areas and over time.

The Claimant Count estimates provide the best available estimates of the number of people claiming unemployment related benefits in the UK.

Source name: Nomis Collection name: Claimant county by sex and age Polarity: No polarity

Polarity is how sentiment is measured "Sentiment is usually considered to have "poles" positive and negative these are often translated into "good" and "bad" sentiment analysis is considered useful to tell us what is good and bad in our information stream

The percentage of the economically active population who are claiming Job Seekers Allowance (JSA).

Output from the GLA claimant count model which uses administrative counts of Job Seekers and expresses them as a percentage of the labour force using GLA projections of the economically active population. Designed to complement ONS claimant count rates which use the whole population as the denominator.

From October 2015, the series included here is JSA CLAIMANTS ONLY. Output from the GLA ward level Claimant Count Model for 2015. There have been changes to the data published to create these rates. From May 2015, the official claimant count data changed at national and regional levels to include all claimants of Universal Credit not in employment (including those not subject to work related criteria).However, comparable data were not available by age and duration and the small area data did not include these claimants. From October 2015, this group of Universal Credit claimants were included in the small area data, but no duration data is available. However, the data in the files posted here (as released by ONS) were for the published claimant count up to September 2015 and from October 2015 continue to include JSA only.

At December 2015 there were more than 10,000 Universal Credit claimants in London, of whom 3,400 (34 per cent) were in employment. The borough with the largest number of these is Tower Hamlets with over 900 UC claimants not in employment, Some other boroughs had quite large numbers, but in 13 boroughs there were 10 or fewer recorded UC claimants not in employment. From January 2016 data this series will be replaced with a new series that uses the claimant count data that are available. Other breaks in the series are expected over 2016-17.

Other Resources

Claimant Count Time Series - Ward claimant count summary data for the period 2011-2014

Historical Models - Ward claimant count models 2010-2014 (old methodology)

Universal Credit: Claimants not in employment

Universal Credit: Claimants not in employment

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.

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 experimental series counts the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance plus those who claim Universal Credit who are out of work and replaces the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance as the headline indicator of the number of people claiming benefits principally for the reason of being unemployed. From May 2013 onwards these figures are not designated as National Statistics. Data prior to 2013 are counts of all persons claiming unemployment-related benefits i.e. Jobseeker’s Allowance . The constituency area boundaries used in the data are those defined by the Parliamentary Constituencies 2010 revision.

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 4th of each month.

Universal Credit: Number of claimants on caseload

Map and table of Universal Credit Claimants by Month and Ward covering the city of Leicester

For further background information on benefits statistics please follow links below: Benefit Statistics - Further Information Personal Independence Payment Statistics - Further information

Geographical boundaries for Universal Credit statistics for the years 2017- 2023 are based on the Claimants postcode at 2023.

Figures relate to Claimants at February each year and are rounded to the nearest 10.

This dataset uses Claimant Count to monitor unemployment by Leicester electoral ward. Only one month's data is available here to allow the data to be presented as a map.Claimant Count is the number of people claiming Universal Credit or Jobseekers' Allowance principally for the reason of being unemployed.Claimant Count is a useful proxy for unemployment because it is the most comprehensive unemployment-related dataset published at geographies smaller than the local authority level. However, it is not the same as the national measure for unemployment, which is based on estimates from the Labour Force Survey and Annual Population Survey.Claimant Count is best used for understanding short term changes in the labour market and the relative position of small areas.Rates are calculated using ONS mid-year estimates for the 16-64 year old population as a denominator.Further information: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/aguidetolabourmarketstatistics#introduction