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DWP · Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: outturn and forecast (Spring Forecast 2026)

Universal Credit caseload

Year ending March 2025 Final

5,473,000households

Universal Credit caseload was 5,473,000 households at 31 March 2025, up 16.3% (767,000) from 4,706,000 at 31 March 2024.

▲ 16.3% · +767,000 against Year ending March 2024 (previous period)

  1. DWP snapshot
  2. Year ending March 2025
  3. published 26 March 2026
  4. Universal Credit and equivalents caseloads,
  5. row “Universal Credit”
  6. column “2024/25”
  7. cell value 5473

Year ending March 2020 to Year ending March 2025

Universal Credit caseload: Year ending March 2020 to Year ending March 2025ConservativeConservativeLabourLabour02m4m202020212022202320242025Year ending March 2020: 2,130,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2021: 3,873,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2022: 4,049,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2023: 4,229,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2024: 4,706,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2025: 5,473,000 households · published 26 March 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

The average number of households with a Universal Credit claim in payment over the financial year.

People often confuse this with

Benefit recipient ≠ Unemployed personMost people on Universal Credit are in work, disabled, caring or not required to look for work. The unemployed are people without a job who are looking for one and available to start, measured by the Labour Force Survey whether or not they claim anything.

What this doesn’t measure

Households still on the legacy benefits Universal Credit replaces, which the workbook lists separately and which fall as claims migrate.

Important caveat

These are DWP's own expenditure and caseload tables for Great Britain, by financial year. Expenditure is in cash terms unless the metric says real terms, in which case DWP has restated it at 2026/27 prices with the GDP deflator. Caseloads are averages over the year, not the number at any date, and a person can appear in more than one benefit's caseload. Benefits devolved to Scotland leave these tables from the year of transfer, so recent years cover a smaller population than earlier ones for the affected benefits. Forecast years in the same workbook are not shown here.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher
DWP
Publication
Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: outturn and forecast (Spring Forecast 2026)
Release
Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: Spring Forecast 2026, published 26 March 2026
Source file
dwp_outturn.xlsx
File SHA-256
11a591e4a2144ed6a686be6a9ded4e5d5b3b8d4887bd57c1ff0632bd251009de
Retrieved
3 September 2026
Sheet
Universal Credit and equivalent
Table
Universal Credit and equivalents caseloads,
Row
Universal Credit
Column
2024/25
Cell value
5473 (× 1,000 = 5,473,000 households)
Geography
K03000001
Unit
households
API
/api/metrics/universal_credit_caseload · /series · /vintages

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Full comparison with chart

Release
Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: Spring Forecast 2026 · publication page
Last updated
26 March 2026
Next release expected
Not yet announced (estimated from the usual cadence)