Overview
- Total claimants rose from 7.2 million a year earlier to 8.3 million, the largest annual increase since early in the pandemic.
- The month-to-month rise of 159,654 between September and October was the biggest since June 2020.
- About four million people are now classed as having no work requirements, representing 48.7% of claimants.
- The DWP has reclassified around one million claimants into different groups, reshaping category totals.
- The searching-for-work group stands at 1.6 million and working claimants at 2.2 million, both flat year on year, while 84.3% of claimants are British, Irish or settled and nearly half of households include children with 46% facing deductions in August.