Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average number of people assigned to each work coach is.

In March 2025 there were 1,662,380 Universal Credit (UC) customers in the Searching for Work conditionality regime, and at the end of March 25 the number of full time equivalent (FTE) Work Coaches was 17,160.

Not all UC claimants have a Work Coach. We have provided the number of customers in the Searching for Work conditionality regime as most of this group do.

The average number of people assigned to each Work Coach is not a metric used by the Department and the Department has complex models to estimate the resource required in Jobcentres at a national level. These models cover activities across all DWP customer groups and job roles.

The Department continually impacts and assesses the service being offered to customers. Staff numbers, including the number of Work Coaches, and demand for Jobcentre services are reviewed on an ongoing basis, in line with the latest economic and benefit forecasts.

Notes on the figures:

Work coach FTE figures are management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and are not quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They are not routinely published, but as the Department holds the information, we have released it in this PQ to answer the question asked.

Work Coach figures include both Universal Credit Work Coaches and Existing Benefit Work Coaches. They do not include Work Coach Team Leaders and Disability Employment Advisers.

The number of Universal Credit claimants includes those who have started Universal Credit (completed the Universal Credit claim process and accepted their Claimant Commitment) and have not had a closure of their claim recorded for this spell, up to the 'count date', and is correct as of the second Thursday in March 2025. This figure is provisional and may be subject to revision in future releases of the data.

Inclusion in a specific Labour market regime is based on an individual's circumstances on the count date.

FTE data is correct as at the end of March 25. These figures were derived from the Department’s Activity Based Model (ABM), which provides Full Time Equivalent (FTE) figures based on point in time estimate by Line Managers. They cover only FTE of staff with paid employment.

All figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 and cover Great Britain.