The number of people claiming universal credit (UC) in Britain who are not required to work has risen by more than a million in a year, new figures show.
There were four million people in this category in October, making up almost half (48.7%) of all claimants.
UC is a payment to help with living costs and is available for people in work who are on low incomes, as well as those who are out of work or cannot work.
People in the “no work requirements” bracket can include those in full-time education, over the state pension age, someone with a child aged under one, and those considered to have no prospect of work.
There were 8.3 million people overall on UC in October, a rise from 7.2 million at the same point last year, figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) showed.
The data covers England, Scotland and Wales.
The year-on-year change of 1.1 million is the largest annual increase in total claimants since early in the Covid pandemic – the 12 months to April 2021.
The rise of 159,654 in total UC claimants between September and October was the largest monthly increase since June 2020.
The steep rise in the past 12 months has been driven almost entirely by people who are not required to work, rising from 2.9 million in that category a year ago in October 2024 and up from 2.2 million in October 2023.
Claimants in the no work requirements category accounted for 40.4% of all UC claims in October 2024 and 36.3% in October 2023.
Other claimants are required to do certain work-related activities to receive the UC benefit, such as attending interviews to plan for their return to work or actively searching for work.
The number of people in this searching for work category stood at 1.6 million in October and the number of working people on UC stood at 2.2 million last month.
The numbers in both of those categories have remained unchanged year-on-year.
The Labour Government has previously said it “inherited a broken welfare system and spiralling, unsustainable benefits bill” from the Conservatives, and is working on reforms including tightening rules on who can claim UC.
