Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pension, how many veterans have been identified as Universal Credit claimants since the introduction of the new DWP marker.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) started collecting data on the Armed Forces status of Universal Credit (UC) claimants in Great Britain (GB) in April 2021. At first only new claimants were asked about their Armed Forces status. From June 2021 onwards, other UC claimants reporting changes in their work and earnings have also been able to report their status. From July 2021 onwards, UC agents have also been able to record claimants’ Armed Forces status if they are told about this via other means such as journal messages, face-to-face meetings or by telephone.

It should be noted that Armed forces status is self-reported by claimants and is not verified by the Ministry of Defence or Office for Veterans’ Affairs. A claimant’s status can be recorded as “currently serving”, “served in the past”, “not served” or “prefer not to say”. Data is not collected on the specific branch of the Armed Forces that claimants are serving in or have served in in the past.

Data is not held on the total number of UC claimants who have served in the Armed Forces in the past, but data is held on those who have identified themselves so far.

By 12th December 2023, approximately 92,000 UC claimants had been identified as having “served in the past”. This figure includes current UC claimants and people who have claimed in the past.

Notes:

1. Data is not collected on the Armed Forces status of UC claimants in Northern Ireland. The figures provided only relate to Great Britain.

2. Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand.

3. Figures may be subject to retrospective changes as more up-to-date data becomes available or if methodological improvements are made.

4. The figure provided only includes claimants who have been associated with a UC contract for which a statement was generated. It is not consistent with the Official Statistics UC caseload definition.