Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the numbers of non-British nationals claiming Universal Credit.

Figures are routinely published of the number of non ‘Common Travel Area’ (CTA) nationals in the Universal Credit statistics available on GOV.UK.

From the most recently published Universal Credit statistics, there were 8.3 million people on Universal Credit in January 2026, and the percentage of those people by nationality group, compiled from Table 2 of the immigration and nationality data tables, is shown in the table below.

Table 1: Proportion of People on Universal Credit by Nationality group, Great Britain, January 2026

Source: DWP Universal Credit - Immigration Status and Nationality statistics

Notes:

1. The latest non-missing Nationality declared by the claimant, reported across all previous UC claims.
2. CTA – The Common Travel Area (CTA) is a special travel zone that allows for free movement between the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey).
3. “CTA – UK, Ireland, Right of Abode”: British nationals, Irish nationals, and people with right of abode in the UK do not need an immigration status to claim Universal Credit.
4. “EEA (Excluding Ireland)”: Those with nationalities from the 27 European Union (EU) member states, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
5. “Non-EEA”: A person who is not an EEA citizen and is not a British citizen.
6. “No nationality recorded on digital systems”: The individual has not provided their nationality during their claim.
7. If a claimant has dual nationality and one is CTA then they will be recorded as CTA - UK, Ireland, Right of Abode.
8. Right of Abode individuals include Commonwealth citizens.