Clifford

In light of the volatile job market and surge in universal credit claimants caused by COVID-19, we have made our claimant data available for download.

This data Includes monthly claimant data at ward level from January 2019 for the following benefits in England, Scotland and Wales:

  • Universal Credit – Updated monthly
  • Jobseeker’s Allowance – Updated quarterly
  • Income Support – Updated quarterly
  • Housing Benefit – Updated monthly
  • Employment and Support Allowance – Updated quarterly

Also:

  • Total Claimants column which combines the claimants from all included benefits. This allows you to make a true comparison of how the number of people claiming unemployment-based benefits changes over time.
  • Working population column for each ward (age 18-67). Allows proportional comparison between wards.
  • Join with our ward polygon data to create your own maps.

Universal Credit is now the most widely used unemployment/low-income based benefit. It has been gradually rolled out since April 2013 and is set to replace all other listed benefits with a deadline to switch by 2024.

For ESA, JSA and Income Support, we have converted our quarterly data into monthly by backfilling the previous 3 months with the quarterly value divided by 3.

The graph below shows the number of universal credit claimants by month since January 2019. The steady rise in claimants in the last 2 years can be accredited to other benefit claimants switching to universal credit. The surge in April however, is mainly due to a rise in claimants as a result of businesses closing after COVID restrictions were introduced.

This data will be updated monthly to allow tracking of claimants through subsequent lockdowns. The data can be unlocked by creating an account and following the ‘My Account’ page.

For data protection reasons, this data-set contains introduced random error. For more information see Benefit Data.

This dataset is free for Non-Commercial reuse.

Create a free account and unlock Doorda data downloads as well as ongoing updates

  • Data covers the whole of the UK
  • Grouped on local areas
  • Refreshed monthly

Once you’ve created an account you’ll be able to login and download the latest version.