Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department’s statistics on the ONS Nomis database on Jobseekers Allowance on-flows by occupation and age, what assessment she has made of the potential reason for changes in the number of on-flows to Jobseekers Allowance where the occupation is unknown since June 2024.

There have been some changes to the administrative instructions followed by the department’s Work Coaches around recording occupation at the Initial Work Seach Interview. This has led to the observed change in the levels of unknown occupations in the Jobseekers Allowance occupation data since June.