Overview
- The DWP, in FOI data reported Thursday, said 1,497,774 non‑UK nationals received Universal Credit in the year to December 2025, equal to 15.6% of 9.6 million recipients.
- That annual count runs about 200,000 above the end‑2025 snapshot of 1.3 million because it records anyone who claimed at any point during the year.
- The largest groups were EU Settlement Scheme residents at about 900,000, holders of indefinite leave to remain at roughly 333,000, around 145,000 refugees, and about 67,000 people with humanitarian protection.
- Labour has proposed lengthening the wait for indefinite leave to remain from five to ten years with checks on work, English level and wider contribution, and ministers are consulting on whether access to benefits should wait until citizenship.
- Conservatives said they would ban benefit claims by non‑citizens except EU nationals with permanent settlement, while a government spokesman said the share of foreign nationals on Universal Credit has fallen and pledged to double residency time for access to public funds, though no law has changed yet.