Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of numbers of people in receipt of Universal Credit; and what are the comparative figures for the 2020–21 financial year.

The Department publishes Universal Credit statistics on Stat-Xplore which show there were 7.1 million people on Universal Credit in September 2024 and 5.6 million people on Universal Credit in September 2020.

The Department also publishes the benefit expenditure and caseload tables which reported an average caseload of 4.0 million people on Universal Credit in 2020-21.

There are a number of reasons for the increase in the caseload for Universal Credit. There is a maturing effect, as people on legacy benefits leave the system as their legacy claim ends, they appear as a new claim to Universal Credit. In addition, the Move to UC programme is driving up the caseload numbers as people are moved off legacy benefits onto Universal Credit as part of our migration programme.