Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were claiming universal credit and legacy benefits as of 24 January 2022, broken down by nationality.

The nationality of claimants is not currently recorded on benefit payment systems.

The Department for Work and Pensions does publish annual statistics on “Nationality at point of National Insurance Number registration of DWP working age benefit recipients” and the latest statistics are for November 2020 and available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/nationality-at-point-of-national-insurance-number-registration-of-dwp-working-age-benefit-recipients-data-to-november-2020

Table 3 in the tables provides a benefit combination breakdown by nationality, however please note that the nationality for Non-UK nationals is recorded at the point of NINo registration and cannot be used as a proxy for current nationality or nationality at birt