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

Source: Universal Credit Full Service (UCFS) Extract

Notes

1. The latest nationality recorded on the UC system, as declared by the claimant, reported across all previous UC claims.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Percentages are shown to 1 decimal place.
5. 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.
6. HRT revisions can occur and can be retrospectively applied and supersede previous decisions. Hence changes to previous months are possible.
7. If a claimant has dual nationality and one is CTA then they will be recorded as CTA - UK, Ireland, Right of Abode.
8. Non-EU individuals can be in the EUSS, and non-EU family members of EU citizens can have EUSS status through family routes.
9. Non-Ukrainians/Non-Afghans can be in resettlement schemes
10. Right of Abode individuals include some Commonwealth citizens, assuming they fulfil the necessary criteria.

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.