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.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

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

Source: Universal Credit Immigration status and nationality summary statistics

Notes

1. The latest Nationality recorded on the UC system declared by the claimant, reported across all previous UC claims.
2. 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.
3. Aligned UCFS Nationality and HRT data are available from April 2022 onwards only.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. HRT revisions can occur and can be retrospectively applied and supersede previous decisions. Hence changes to previous months are possible.
7. If a claimant has dual nationality and one is CTA then they will be recorded as CTA - UK, Ireland, Right of Abode.
8. Non-EU individuals can be in the EUSS, such as Non-EU family members of EU citizens.
9. Non-Ukrainians/Non-Afghans can be in resettlement schemes.
10. Right of Abode individuals include some groups of Commonwealth citizens.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many Universal Credit claimants were recorded in non-UK immigration status groups in each year since 2019.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

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 (further details provided in Table Guidance in the attached document).

Taken from the published statistics, the following table shows the number of people on Universal Credit by immigration status for each April from 2022 to 2025. Data is not held prior to April 2022.

Total number of people on Universal Credit by Immigration status for April 2022 to April 2025, Great Britain

Source: Universal Credit Immigration status and nationality summary statistics

Notes

1. The latest Nationality recorded on the UC system declared by the claimant, reported across all previous UC claims.
2. 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.
3. Aligned UCFS Nationality and HRT data are available from April 2022 onwards only.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. HRT revisions can occur and can be retrospectively applied and supersede previous decisions. Hence changes to previous months are possible.
7. If a claimant has dual nationality and one is CTA then they will be recorded as CTA - UK, Ireland, Right of Abode.
8. Non-EU individuals can be in the EUSS such as Non-EU family members of EU citizens.
9. Non-Ukrainians/Non-Afghans can be in resettlement schemes.
10. Right of Abode individuals include some groups of Commonwealth citizens.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have received wobble boards through Access to Work in each of the past five years, and what was the average cost of a wobble board.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Details of the specific special aides/equipment an individual claims payment for is stored as descriptive free-text information and would require manual examination of individual applications to analyse and to provide it would incur a disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average number of items received by successful applicants through Access to Work.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Information on the number of items received by successful applicants is stored as descriptive free-text information. Providing an answer would require manual examination of individual applications, and would incur a disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have received noise-cancelling headphones through Access to Work in each of the past five years, and what is the average cost of those headphones.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Details of the specific special aides/equipment an individual claims payment for is stored as descriptive free-text information and would require manual examination of individual applications to analyse and to provide it would incur a disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people received Microsoft Office subscriptions through Access to Work in each of the past five years, and what was the average cost of those subscriptions.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Details of the specific special aides/equipment an individual claims payment for is stored as descriptive free-text information and would require manual examination of individual applications to analyse and to provide it would incur a disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have received Trello subscriptions through Access to Work in each of the past five years, and what was the average price of those subscriptions.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Details of the specific special aides/equipment an individual claims payment for is stored as descriptive free-text information and would require manual examination of individual applications to analyse and to provide it would incur a disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have received farming equipment through Access to Work in each of the past five years, and what was the average cost of that equipment.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Details of the specific special aides/equipment an individual claims payment for is stored as descriptive free-text information and would require manual examination of individual applications to analyse and to provide it would incur a disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the impact of AI on the number of individuals who will claim health and disability benefits over the course of this Parliament.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No estimate has been made on the impact of AI on the number of individuals who will claim health and disability benefits over the course of this Parliament.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether there are claimants of Access to Work whose employment is to help others claim Access to Work.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This data is not held. Determining this would require a manual review of individual claimant applications to examine employment details, which would incur a disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of individuals who are eligible for health and disability benefits who have not claimed these benefits over the last five years.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No estimate has been made.