Universal Credit: Migrants
(asked on 6th October 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Universal Credit claimants were recorded in the last 12 months who were categorised as (1) refugees, (2) having pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, (3) having settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, (4) having indefinite leave to remain, and (5) having limited leave to remain.
To access Universal Credit a person must be British, Irish, have a right of abode, or have a valid UK immigration status that permits recourse to public funds as well as meeting all the other entitlement conditions. The Department recently published Universal Credit Immigration status and Nationality summary statistics through ODS tables on GOV.UK.
For statistical production purposes, immigration status data has been categorised into 8 groups (see attached document).
Taken from the published statistics, the following table shows the number of people on Universal Credit by immigration status for each month from August 2024 to July 2025. The additional breakdowns requested for the EU Settlement Scheme are not readily available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.
Total number of people on Universal Credit by Immigration status each month from August 2024 to July 2025, Great Britain
Immigration status by month | CTA - UK, Ireland, Right of Abode | EU Settlement Scheme | Humanitarian | Refugee | Indefinite Leave to Remain (not EU Settlement Scheme) | Limited Leave to Remain (not EU Settlement Scheme) including Family Reunion | Other | No immigration status recorded on digital systems |
Jul-25 | 6,702,864 | 770,213 | 54,259 | 120,040 | 213,666 | 75,471 | 33,387 | 31,340 |
Jun-25 | 6,567,506 | 764,429 | 53,810 | 117,623 | 210,513 | 74,694 | 32,998 | 29,912 |
May-25 | 6,457,433 | 763,687 | 78,323 | 90,709 | 208,348 | 74,322 | 32,880 | 30,789 |
Apr-25 | 6,400,356 | 765,451 | 78,780 | 90,217 | 204,378 | 75,506 | 33,300 | 31,468 |
Mar-25 | 6,321,762 | 764,489 | 76,418 | 91,350 | 198,973 | 76,960 | 32,829 | 32,315 |
Feb-25 | 6,249,383 | 762,478 | 75,466 | 90,619 | 194,303 | 76,918 | 32,866 | 33,054 |
Jan-25 | 6,138,815 | 757,768 | 68,526 | 95,882 | 187,556 | 77,237 | 31,908 | 34,060 |
Dec-24 | 6,104,580 | 759,179 | 53,291 | 112,472 | 179,482 | 79,539 | 32,141 | 34,792 |
Nov-24 | 6,034,441 | 755,941 | 52,210 | 113,186 | 165,869 | 86,973 | 31,783 | 35,770 |
Oct-24 | 5,935,808 | 748,299 | 51,214 | 110,816 | 160,615 | 89,054 | 30,840 | 37,059 |
Sep-24 | 5,862,022 | 739,155 | 51,132 | 110,535 | 159,504 | 88,326 | 29,957 | 38,184 |
Aug-24 | 5,760,130 | 734,637 | 51,309 | 110,834 | 155,939 | 87,182 | 29,451 | 39,332 |
Source: Universal Credit Immigration status and nationality summary statistics
Notes
- The latest Nationality recorded on the UC system declared by the claimant, reported across all previous UC claims.
- 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.
- Aligned UCFS Nationality and HRT data are available from April 2022 onwards only.
- 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.
- 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.
- HRT revisions can occur and can be retrospectively applied and supersede previous decisions. Hence changes to previous months are possible.
- If a claimant has dual nationality and one is CTA then they will be recorded as CTA - UK, Ireland, Right of Abode.
- Non-EU individuals can be in the EUSS, such as Non-EU family members of EU citizens.
- Non-Ukrainians/Non-Afghans can be in resettlement schemes.
- Right of Abode individuals include some groups of Commonwealth citizens.