Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of the people in the Universal Credit Intensive Work Search group were aged between 16 and 24 in total in financial year (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23.

In total, there were 790,000 16 to 24 year olds in the Intensive Work Search group in 2021/22 and 570,000 in 2022/23.

Notes:

1. Numbers of individuals are rounded to the nearest 10,000 and proportions are rounded to the nearest percentage point.
2. Individuals are counted against the financial year 2021-22 with respect to assessment periods covering the second Thursday of April 2021 to the second Thursday of March 2022, and similarly for financial year 2022-23. Individuals are not counted if they are in the Intensive Work Search group only in one or more assessment periods that don't cover any second Thursdays in the financial year.
3. Individuals who have more than one spell in the Intensive Work Search group during the financial year are counted once.
4. Individuals who were aged 16-24 for only part of the financial year are included.