Universal Credit: Bank Services
(asked on 27th January 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what statistics have been published regarding the gender of the bank account holder for Universal Credit since the 2019 publication Universal Credit Statistical Ad Hoc: Gender of bank account holder on Universal Credit; and what information is available, broken down by gender, of the person nominated as the lead carer in couples with children.
There have been no further publications since 2019 on the gender of the bank account holder for UC.
A flag was developed to identify lead carers in our administrative data in July 2023, to enable us to monitor the rollout of the 2023 changes to lead carer conditionality. Based on data from October 2024, there were around 825,000 lead carers in receipt of UC with a couple claim: 87% are female, 13% are male. The tables below provide a breakdown of some further characteristics:
Characteristics of lead carers who are part of a couple claim on Universal Credit, October 2024
Age group | Under 25 | 25-34 | 35-44 | 45-49 | 50-54 | 55+ |
Female | 4% | 33% | 46% | 11% | 4% | 1% |
Male | 1% | 16% | 40% | 19% | 13% | 11% |
Employed | No | Yes |
Female | 57% | 43% |
Male | 44% | 56% |
Age of youngest child | 0-4 | 5-10 | 11-15 | 16-19 |
Female | 45% | 35% | 19% | 0% |
Male | 33% | 39% | 27% | 1% |
Number of children | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5+ |
Female | 33% | 39% | 19% | 7% | 2% | 3% |
Male | 37% | 37% | 17% | 6% | 2% | 2% |
Note: totals may not sum to 100% due to rounding. These figures are from DWP administrative data.