Lord Godson: DWP: Written Answers (14)

Written Question

Universal Credit: Migrants

Wednesday 12th November 2025

Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many Universal Credit claimants were recorded in the last 12 months who were categorised as (1) refugees, (2) having pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, (3) having settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, (4) having indefinite leave to remain, and (5) having limited leave to remain.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

To access Universal Credit a person must be British, Irish, have a right of abode, or have a valid UK immigration status that permits recourse to public funds as well as meeting all the other entitlement conditions. The Department recently published Universal Credit Immigration status and Nationality summary statistics through ODS tables on GOV.UK.

For statistical production purposes, immigration status data has been categorised into 8 groups (see attached document).

Taken from the published statistics, the following table shows the number of people on Universal Credit by immigration status for each month from August 2024 to July 2025. The additional breakdowns requested for the EU Settlement Scheme are not readily available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.

Total number of people on Universal Credit by Immigration status each month from August 2024 to July 2025, Great Britain

Immigration status by month	CTA - UK, Ireland, Right of Abode	EU Settlement Scheme	Humanitarian	Refugee	Indefinite Leave to Remain (not EU Settlement Scheme)	Limited Leave to Remain (not EU Settlement Scheme) including Family Reunion	Other	No immigration status recorded on digital systems
Jul-25	6,702,864	770,213	54,259	120,040	213,666	75,471	33,387	31,340
Jun-25	6,567,506	764,429	53,810	117,623	210,513	74,694	32,998	29,912
May-25	6,457,433	763,687	78,323	90,709	208,348	74,322	32,880	30,789
Apr-25	6,400,356	765,451	78,780	90,217	204,378	75,506	33,300	31,468
Mar-25	6,321,762	764,489	76,418	91,350	198,973	76,960	32,829	32,315
Feb-25	6,249,383	762,478	75,466	90,619	194,303	76,918	32,866	33,054
Jan-25	6,138,815	757,768	68,526	95,882	187,556	77,237	31,908	34,060
Dec-24	6,104,580	759,179	53,291	112,472	179,482	79,539	32,141	34,792
Nov-24	6,034,441	755,941	52,210	113,186	165,869	86,973	31,783	35,770
Oct-24	5,935,808	748,299	51,214	110,816	160,615	89,054	30,840	37,059
Sep-24	5,862,022	739,155	51,132	110,535	159,504	88,326	29,957	38,184
Aug-24	5,760,130	734,637	51,309	110,834	155,939	87,182	29,451	39,332

Source: Universal Credit Immigration status and nationality summary statistics

Notes

The latest Nationality recorded on the UC system declared by the claimant, reported across all previous UC claims.
Immigration status is sourced from Habitual Residence Test (HRT) data. The latest immigration status is recorded and reported against the corresponding claim at the point in time it applied.
Aligned UCFS Nationality and HRT data are available from April 2022 onwards only.
Cells in these tables have had statistical disclosure control applied to avoid the release of confidential data. Due to adjustments totals may not be the sum of the individual cells.
Figures for the most recent month are provisional. These figures will be subject to revision in subsequent releases in line with our statistical revisions policy.
HRT revisions can occur and can be retrospectively applied and supersede previous decisions. Hence changes to previous months are possible.
If a claimant has dual nationality and one is CTA then they will be recorded as CTA - UK, Ireland, Right of Abode.
Non-EU individuals can be in the EUSS, such as Non-EU family members of EU citizens.
Non-Ukrainians/Non-Afghans can be in resettlement schemes.
Right of Abode individuals include some groups of Commonwealth citizens.

Written Question

Universal Credit: Migrants

Wednesday 12th November 2025

Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many Universal Credit claimants were recorded in non-UK immigration status groups in each year since 2019.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

For statistical production purposes, immigration status data has been categorised into 8 groups (further details provided in Table Guidance in the attached document).

Taken from the published statistics, the following table shows the number of people on Universal Credit by immigration status for each April from 2022 to 2025. Data is not held prior to April 2022.

Total number of people on Universal Credit by Immigration status for April 2022 to April 2025, Great Britain

Immigration status by month	CTA – UK, Ireland, Right of Abode	EU Settlement Scheme	Humanitarian	Refugee	Indefinite Leave to Remain (not EU Settlement Scheme)	Limited Leave to Remain (not EU Settlement Scheme) including Family Reunion	Other	No immigration status recorded on digital systems
Apr-25	6,400,356	765,451	78,780	90,217	204,378	75,506	33,300	31,468
Apr-24	5,519,088	720,365	49,817	107,486	142,884	84,558	27,134	25,894
Apr-23	4,859,348	671,620	47,020	75,372	113,548	77,363	16,590	35,846
Apr-22	4,611,046	644,847	3,221	64,423	95,612	68,883	6,484	51,600

Source: Universal Credit Immigration status and nationality summary statistics

Notes

The latest Nationality recorded on the UC system declared by the claimant, reported across all previous UC claims.
Immigration status is sourced from Habitual Residence Test (HRT) data. The latest immigration status is recorded and reported against the corresponding claim at the point in time it applied.
Aligned UCFS Nationality and HRT data are available from April 2022 onwards only.
Cells in these tables have had statistical disclosure control applied to avoid the release of confidential data. Due to adjustments totals may not be the sum of the individual cells.
Figures for the most recent month are provisional. These figures will be subject to revision in subsequent releases in line with our statistical revisions policy.
HRT revisions can occur and can be retrospectively applied and supersede previous decisions. Hence changes to previous months are possible.
If a claimant has dual nationality and one is CTA then they will be recorded as CTA - UK, Ireland, Right of Abode.
Non-EU individuals can be in the EUSS such as Non-EU family members of EU citizens.
Non-Ukrainians/Non-Afghans can be in resettlement schemes.
Right of Abode individuals include some groups of Commonwealth citizens.

Written Question

Universal Credit: Migrants

Monday 20th October 2025

Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many Universal Credit claimants recorded to be in non-UK immigration status groups are (1) in work, and (2) not in work; and what proportion these claimants represent of the total Universal Credit caseload.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department recently published Universal Credit Immigration status and nationality summary statistics and the relevant information from those statistics is displayed in Table 1 below.

For the purpose of statistical production, immigration status data has been categorised into the following 8 groups:

CTA – UK, Ireland, Right of Abode (British nationals, Irish nationals, and people with a right of abode in the UK do not need an immigration status to claim Universal Credit)
EU Settlement Scheme (People with EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) Settled Status have a right to reside in the UK. People with EUSS pre-settled status, a certificate of application to the EUSS, or relevant joining family members with temporary protection will only have a qualifying right to reside if they are additionally undertaking a relevant activity, such as being a worker or self-employed, or they can derive a qualifying right to reside from a relevant family member)
Humanitarian (includes people who hold an immigration status under safe and legal humanitarian immigration routes, for example schemes for Ukrainian and Afghan nationals and eligible members of their families)
Refugee (includes individuals granted refugee status due to being forced to flee their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution, war, or violence)
Indefinite Leave to Remain (not EU Settlement Scheme) (includes any individual that has Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK. This is also called ‘settlement’. It gives a person the right to live, work and study here for as long as they like and apply for benefits if they are eligible)
Limited Leave to Remain (not EU Settlement Scheme) including family reunion (includes individuals that have a temporary immigration status in the UK with a no recourse to public fund condition but in certain circumstances may have applied to have that condition lifted and others who due to the conditions of their visa are not restricted from accessing benefits. Not included in this group are people with temporary leave categorised by DWP as Refugee, Humanitarian Protection, Afghan Scheme and Ukraine Scheme).
Other (includes those no longer receiving UC payments, ineligible partners of an eligible UC claimant and claimants who have their decision overturned at Mandatory Reconsideration or Appeal stage)
No immigration status recorded on digital systems (includes cases where a recorded immigration status is not held on DWP administrative data).

Table 1: Number and proportion of People on Universal Credit by immigration status and employment status June 2025, Great Britain

Immigration status	Not in employment	% of all on UC	In employment	% of all on UC	Total
CTA - UK, Ireland, Right of Abode	4,418,544	56.3%	2,148,966	27.4%	6,567,506
EU Settlement Scheme	403,956	5.1%	360,473	4.6%	764,429
Humanitarian	32,085	0.4%	21,726	0.3%	53,810
Refugee	90,403	1.2%	27,214	0.3%	117,623
Indefinite Leave to Remain (not EU Settlement Scheme)	141,958	1.8%	68,558	0.9%	210,513
Limited Leave to Remain (not EU Settlement Scheme) including family reunion	50,010	0.6%	24,692	0.3%	74,694
Other	21,705	0.3%	11,289	0.1%	32,998
No immigration status recorded on digital systems	19,258	0.2%	10,646	0.1%	29,912
Total	5,177,927	65.9%	2,673,559	34.1%	7,851,487

Source: Universal Credit Full Service (UCFS) Extract

Notes

The latest nationality recorded on the UC system, as declared by the claimant, reported across all previous UC claims.
Immigration status is sourced from Habitual Residence Test (HRT) data. The latest immigration status is recorded and reported against the corresponding claim at the point in time it applied.
Cells in these tables have had statistical disclosure control applied to avoid the release of confidential data. Due to adjustments totals may not be the sum of the individual cells.
Percentages are shown to 1 decimal place.
Figures for the most recent month are provisional. These figures will be subject to revision in subsequent releases in line with our statistical revisions policy.
HRT revisions can occur and can be retrospectively applied and supersede previous decisions. Hence changes to previous months are possible.
If a claimant has dual nationality and one is CTA then they will be recorded as CTA - UK, Ireland, Right of Abode.
Non-EU individuals can be in the EUSS, and non-EU family members of EU citizens can have EUSS status through family routes.
Non-Ukrainians/Non-Afghans can be in resettlement schemes
Right of Abode individuals include some Commonwealth citizens, assuming they fulfil the necessary criteria.

Written Question

Social Security Benefits: Migrants

Monday 20th October 2025

Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of expenditure on each major working-age benefit was accounted for by claimants from non-UK immigration status groups in (1) 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024, and (2) 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department recently published new Universal Credit - Immigration Status and Nationality statistics. Further breakdowns of these statistics are not currently available.

The department does not hold data for other Working Age Benefits expenditure broken down by immigration status.

Written Question

Personal Independence Payment: Staff

Wednesday 5th February 2025

Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) senior responsible officers, and (2) policy directors, there were for the Personal Independence Payment programme between 2011 and 2014.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) programme completed at the end of March 2017. In line with our information management process DWP retains programme information for 20 years from the date of the first document. However, some of the information is not easily accessible, would require time to retrieve and analyse, and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

From the available evidence we do have access to, records show that Sue Moore was appointed as the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the programme in 2014 (Appointment letter: Senior Responsible Owner for the Personal Independence Payment Programme).

Written Question

Access to Work Programme: Staff

Thursday 16th January 2025

Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what was the spending on support workers through Access to Work in each of the last five financial years.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The annual Access to Work Official Statistics show expenditure on the Support Worker element within each financial year from 2007/08 to 2023/24. The latest publication can be found here: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2024 - GOV.UK

The below table shows expenditure, in real terms (2023/24 prices), on the Support Worker element type from 2019/20 to 2023/24. These figures can be found in Table 12a of the Access to Work Official Statistics:

Financial year	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24
Expenditure (£m) in real terms (2023/24 prices)	104	88	121	136	178

When interpreting results, particularly comparing time periods, please be aware of the potential effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic between 2020/21 and 2022/23.

Nominal expenditure for the Support Worker element type can be located in Table 12 of the Access to Work Official Statistics.

Written Question

Access to Work Programme: Equipment

Thursday 16th January 2025

Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what were the most common specialist aids and equipment paid for by Access to Work in the last five financial years.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Access to Work provides funding towards the cost of a range of equipment, these should be items that are beyond what would normally be required under an employer’s responsibility to provide reasonable adjustments. Information on specific items of Special Aids and Equipment (SAE) for which grants were approved is not readily available. This is stored as descriptive, free-text information and would require manual examination of individual applications to analyse and therefore falls outside of the costs limit. Expenditure on SAE was £21m in 2023/24, this was the third highest of all Access to Work elements and an 82% increase in real terms compared to the previous financial year.

Written Question

Disability Living Allowance: Personal Independence Payment

Thursday 16th January 2025

Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of people in receipt of Disability Living Allowance transitioned to Personal Independence Payment over the last five financial years.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The table below shows the proportions of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) caseload that have undergone a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessment in each of the last five financial years (FY).

FY	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22	2022/23	2023/24
Percentage of caseload
Children	6.2	7.3	8.1	9.5	8.4
Adults	22.1	7.4	2.7	2.8	2.6
Total	16.7	7.4	5.1	6.1	5.7

Points to note:

- Figures are for England and Wales only.

- Figures are split for children and adults. Adults include those of working age and those over state pension age.

- Reassessment statistics count individual people who have registered PIP claims that are classified as DLA reassessments, where there is a matching DLA record.

- Children are usually invited to claim PIP on or shortly after their 16th birthday. If they choose to apply for PIP this will be considered a reassessment.

Written Question

Personal Independence Payment: Employment

Thursday 16th January 2025

Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what data they have on the employment rate of individuals (1) before they claim Personal Independence Payment, and (2) in the 12 months after their claim is approved.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Of all individuals who subsequently went on to apply for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), 37% were in employment in the month their PIP case was cleared.

Of those who were awarded PIP, 23% were still in employment after 12 months.

Notes:

Figures are based on the 2021-22 financial year cohort where the claims have been cleared – the latest financial year of data available for the analysis.
Data is for England and Wales only.
Data is for New Claims only.
Employment includes both employed and self-employed individuals.
The 2022-23 tax records for self-employment were not available when the analysis was conducted, therefore the 2021-22 self-employment data was used as a proxy.

Written Question

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Monday 6th January 2025

Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many and what proportion of Personal Independence Payment assessments were carried out (1) face-to-face, (2) remotely and (3) on paper in each month since March 2020.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The number and proportion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments carried out (a) face-to-face (b) remotely (this includes telephone and video) and (c) paper-based can be found in the tables below.

March 2020 to December 2020

Month	Face-to-Face		Remote		Paper-Based		Unspecified
	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion
Mar-20	0	0%	13,610	46%	15,980	54%	0	0%
Apr-20	0	0%	38,090	73%	13,970	27%	0	0%
May-20	0	0%	42,830	82%	9,460	18%	0	0%
Jun-20	0	0%	47,000	86%	7,760	14%	0	0%
Jul-20	0	0%	52,440	87%	7,950	13%	0	0%
Aug-20	0	0%	48,370	87%	7,500	13%	0	0%
Sep-20	0	0%	53,690	83%	11,120	17%	0	0%
Oct-20	0	0%	59,110	81%	14,000	19%	0	0%
Nov-20	0	0%	53,740	82%	11,860	18%	0	0%
Dec-20	0	0%	46,120	82%	10,010	18%	0	0%

2021

Month	Face-to-Face		Remote		Paper-Based		Unspecified
	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion
Jan-21	0	0%	53,730	83%	10,970	17%	0	0%
Feb-21	0	0%	52,860	83%	10,480	17%	0	0%
Mar-21	0	0%	60,160	85%	10,800	15%	0	0%
Apr-21	0	0%	48,670	83%	9,760	17%	0	0%
May-21	0	0%	46,280	82%	9,840	18%	0	0%
Jun-21	10	0%	51,140	83%	10,490	17%	0	0%
Jul-21	50	0%	52,000	83%	10,810	17%	0	0%
Aug-21	2,430	4%	46,240	79%	9,930	17%	0	0%
Sep-21	5,340	8%	50,290	76%	10,590	16%	0	0%
Oct-21	5,190	8%	50,510	76%	10,520	16%	0	0%
Nov-21	5,640	8%	55,470	76%	11,500	16%	0	0%
Dec-21	3,730	6%	44,180	77%	9,440	16%	0	0%

2022

Month	Face-to-Face		Remote		Paper-Based		Unspecified
	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion
Jan-22	90	0%	61,300	83%	12,170	17%	0	0%
Feb-22	3,150	4%	58,070	78%	13,170	18%	0	0%
Mar-22	6,390	8%	63,230	75%	15,050	18%	0	0%
Apr-22	5,100	7%	53,580	75%	12,950	18%	0	0%
May-22	5,690	7%	63,750	77%	13,710	16%	0	0%
Jun-22	5,480	7%	58,730	75%	13,790	18%	0	0%
Jul-22	5,350	7%	59,420	75%	14,380	18%	0	0%
Aug-22	5,950	7%	60,870	73%	14,910	18%	1,990	2%
Sep-22	6,450	8%	60,050	71%	15,540	18%	2,480	3%
Oct-22	7,080	8%	63,190	71%	15,990	18%	2,190	2%
Nov-22	7,540	8%	68,890	71%	18,340	19%	2,260	2%
Dec-22	5,260	7%	50,500	71%	13,810	19%	2,030	3%

2023

Month	Face-to-Face		Remote		Paper-Based		Unspecified
	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion
Jan-23	6,150	6%	70,490	73%	17,750	18%	2,310	2%
Feb-23	6,880	8%	63,600	71%	17,420	19%	2,210	2%
Mar-23	7,210	7%	75,650	72%	20,200	19%	2,480	2%
Apr-23	6,610	8%	57,590	70%	16,260	20%	2,080	3%
May-23	7,290	8%	66,110	70%	18,600	20%	2,340	2%
Jun-23	7,400	7%	71,570	71%	19,800	20%	2,450	2%
Jul-23	7,480	8%	68,910	71%	18,270	19%	2,530	3%
Aug-23	7,950	8%	68,420	69%	20,440	21%	2,420	2%
Sep-23	7,440	8%	68,990	70%	19,690	20%	2,540	3%
Oct-23	7,700	7%	73,240	70%	21,110	20%	2,790	3%
Nov-23	7,400	7%	76,030	70%	22,250	20%	2,850	3%
Dec-23	5,430	7%	52,740	70%	14,810	20%	2,420	3%

January 2024 to November 2024

Month	Face-to-Face		Remote		Paper-Based		Unspecified
	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion	Number	Proportion
Jan-24	6,650	6%	74,750	72%	20,030	19%	2,680	3%
Feb-24	7,260	7%	75,730	73%	17,750	17%	3,110	3%
Mar-24	6,460	7%	69,570	73%	17,010	18%	2,370	2%
Apr-24	5,910	6%	73,580	74%	17,210	17%	2,210	2%
May-24	5,630	6%	74,400	74%	18,210	18%	2,010	2%
Jun-24	5,330	6%	71,410	74%	17,450	18%	1,940	2%
Jul-24	5,650	5%	78,000	74%	19,260	18%	2,150	2%
Aug-24	3,430	4%	72,040	77%	16,980	18%	1,180	1%
Sep-24	1,270	2%	59,780	81%	12,660	17%	180	0%
Oct-24	2,580	2%	82,890	79%	18,430	18%	400	0%
Nov-24	3,620	4%	70,810	77%	16,410	18%	1,350	1%

Please Note

All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Percentages and volumes may not add up to 100% due to rounding.
Remote assessments include telephone and video assessments.
There are a proportion of assessments where the channel is unspecified. We have included these assessments for completion.
All the above data is derived from contractual management information produced by the assessment suppliers
The above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.