Employment and Support Allowance
(asked on 18th May 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people in the past year were considered as having (1) limited capability for work, or (2) limited capacity for work and work-related activity due to pregnancy risks, broken down by whether they received (a) New Style Employment and Support Allowance only, (b) New Style Employment and Support Allowance and an income-related benefit, such as Universal Credit, and (c) Universal Credit only.
The requested information for Universal Credit (UC) and New Style Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is provided in the table below.
Please note that Pregnancy risk cases are only recorded for Work Capability Assessment (WCA) decisions for limited capability for work and work-related activity (LCWRA) in UC and Support Group (SG) in New Style ESA, and not limited capability for work (LCW) in UC or Work-Related Activity Group (WRAG) decisions in New Style ESA.
UC WCA decisions for LCWRA pregnancy risk by date of decision between October 2024 to September 2025
UC WCA decision reason | Total |
LCWRA Pregnancy Risk | 1,280 |
ESA WCA decisions for SG pregnancy risk by date of decision between October 2024 to September 2025
ESA WCA decision reason | Total |
Support Group Pregnancy Risk | 35 |
Of which New Style ESA | 25 |
Of which New Style ESA and Universal Credit (dual claims) | 5 |
Source: ESA & UC administrative data.
Notes:
- The latest available ESA data is up to September 2025, and UC data has been restricted to the same period for comparability.
- Where the ESA payment type is considered credits only or income-based, these are not included in the totals above.
- Figures are rounded to the nearest five and the overall total may not sum due to rounding.