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Independent service run by Suffrago – not an official government website. Every figure comes from an official UK publisher under its open licence and is checked against that source each time the data is refreshed.

Households whose benefits are capped, Great Britain

Official statistics, not accredited

Households in Great Britain whose Universal Credit or Housing Benefit is reduced by the benefit cap, each month.

Great Britain

163,811

May 2026

Verified against source, 30 October 2026, 11:43 UTC
Households whose benefits are capped, Great Britain
  • All capped households
  • Universal Credit
  • Housing Benefit
050k100k150k200kApr 13Jul 15Oct 17Jan 20Apr 22Jul 24May 26

Source: Department for Work and Pensions, Stat-Xplore. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Data table

158 periods, newest first

PeriodAll capped householdsUniversal CreditHousing Benefit
May 2026163,811163,658153
Apr 2026122,197122,039158
Mar 2026111,457111,304153
Feb 2026111,087110,928159
Jan 2026109,887109,708179
Dec 2025106,840106,636204
Nov 2025106,380106,158222
Oct 2025107,999107,747252
Sep 2025111,164110,874290
Aug 2025113,963113,623340
Jul 2025113,082112,677405
Jun 2025114,191113,729462
May 2025116,764116,228536
Apr 2025111,118110,520598
Mar 2025106,403105,728675
Feb 2025107,226106,400826
Jan 2025107,985106,8771,108
Dec 2024105,014103,6141,400
Nov 2024105,789103,9921,797
Oct 2024108,341106,0722,269
Sep 2024112,296109,7432,553
Aug 2024115,646112,4753,171
Jul 2024113,446109,3764,070
Jun 2024112,678108,1344,544
May 2024115,246110,3224,924
Apr 202484,43979,2655,174
Mar 202474,37669,3605,016
Feb 202473,08368,0195,064
Jan 202473,22467,9845,240
Dec 202371,61666,3985,218
Nov 202372,27666,5595,717
Oct 202373,54367,5615,982
Sep 202375,38669,1646,222
Aug 202378,86672,4266,440
Jul 202379,41472,6876,727
Jun 202380,09073,0857,005
May 202382,16274,7807,382
Apr 2023103,82596,0637,762
Mar 2023105,38996,9648,425
Feb 2023107,36397,8129,551
Jan 2023108,45498,28810,166
Dec 2022105,96595,59210,373
Nov 2022107,40096,48310,917
Oct 2022109,44498,05511,389
Sep 2022114,398102,30812,090
Aug 2022117,392105,18712,205
Jul 2022116,719104,65012,069
Jun 2022117,339104,80812,531
May 2022119,676106,92212,754
Apr 2022109,72496,50313,221
Mar 2022108,16894,74313,425
Feb 2022112,02797,61314,414
Jan 2022114,42299,46814,954
Dec 2021112,92897,68215,246
Nov 2021114,16097,71816,442
Oct 2021115,99498,58917,405
Sep 2021159,743141,12818,615
Aug 2021167,087147,98119,106
Jul 2021171,701151,65220,049
Jun 2021173,723152,85520,868
May 2021174,313152,50421,809
Apr 2021182,663159,77822,885
Mar 2021186,234163,42922,805
Feb 2021186,384162,25924,125
Jan 2021182,008157,60224,406
Dec 2020164,160139,69924,461
Nov 2020166,140140,90225,238
Oct 2020161,323136,53224,791
Sep 2020158,368133,10625,262
Aug 2020158,020131,98626,034
Jul 2020161,040134,15026,890
Jun 2020157,670129,95627,714
May 2020152,147123,62928,518
Apr 2020141,195111,68329,512
Mar 202087,34858,12629,222
Feb 202076,72245,65931,063
Jan 202076,07443,69532,379
Dec 201974,21441,39432,820
Nov 201974,68839,76434,924
Oct 201974,26437,87436,390
Sep 201975,49536,65338,842
Aug 201975,86234,66041,202
Jul 201975,17832,28942,889
Jun 201974,61029,45245,158
May 201973,93026,32547,605
Apr 201971,05621,76649,290
Mar 201967,54918,36649,183
Feb 201966,23514,83051,405
Jan 201962,01612,19349,823
Dec 201859,76510,86148,904
Nov 201859,9279,84250,085
Oct 201861,1039,06452,039
Sep 201862,7208,49154,229
Aug 201863,5787,86455,714
Jul 201863,9147,01956,895
Jun 201863,2716,29756,974
May 201864,9115,78659,125
Apr 201863,1295,21857,911
Mar 201861,2934,94356,350
Feb 201862,8364,67358,163
Jan 201861,9774,35357,624
Dec 201761,6034,03357,570
Nov 201763,6863,87459,812
Oct 201764,8553,82761,028
Sep 201766,8193,71763,102
Aug 201768,8793,60965,270
Jul 201769,3433,46065,883
Jun 201769,8603,35266,508
May 201768,8723,23365,639
Apr 201768,3693,10465,265
Mar 201767,2492,64864,601
Feb 201768,2512,29365,958
Jan 201759,6811,90357,778
Dec 201647,7621,31746,445
Nov 201626,90549426,411
Oct 201618,84335618,487
Sep 2016––19,147
Aug 2016––19,947
Jul 2016––19,644
Jun 2016––19,681
May 2016––19,768
Apr 2016––19,686
Mar 2016––19,292
Feb 2016––20,199
Jan 2016––19,762
Dec 2015––19,683
Nov 2015––20,191
Oct 2015––20,853
Sep 2015––22,082
Aug 2015––22,916
Jul 2015––22,905
Jun 2015––22,238
May 2015––21,877
Apr 2015––22,323
Mar 2015––21,838
Feb 2015––22,347
Jan 2015––23,215
Dec 2014––23,562
Nov 2014––23,911
Oct 2014––24,673
Sep 2014––25,529
Aug 2014––26,762
Jul 2014––26,680
Jun 2014––25,579
May 2014––26,109
Apr 2014––26,493
Mar 2014––26,348
Feb 2014––27,277
Jan 2014––27,162
Dec 2013––27,197
Nov 2013––27,760
Oct 2013––25,961
Sep 2013––23,996
Aug 2013––14,684
Jul 2013––4,340
Jun 2013––2,670
May 2013––2,332
Apr 2013––0

Nations and English regions, May 2026

AreaNumber
Great Britain163,811
England151,965
Wales5,126
Scotland6,381
North East4,188
North West14,666
Yorkshire and The Humber11,104
East Midlands8,723
West Midlands17,189
East of England15,076
London48,450
South East23,538
South West9,015

Download CSVDownload JSON with full provenance

Source and licence

Publisher
Department for Work and Pensions, Stat-Xplore
Check it yourself
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/benefit-cap-statistics
Licence
Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Retrieved
30 October 2026, 11:42 UTC
Verified in
GitHub Actions run 41047883220, which alone can query Stat-Xplore; its raw response is not kept
Raw files fetched

Verification

Verified against source, 30 October 2026, 11:43 UTC Run at 30 October 2026, 11:43 UTC; 487 of 487 figures matched the live source.

ResultCheckDetail
PassProvenance recordedDepartment for Work and Pensions, Stat-Xplore; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-10-30T11:42:34Z; 1 Stat-Xplore response, read in the Actions job and never stored
PassRe-parsing the response reproduces figures487 of 487 figures reproduced by reading the response again in the Actions job
PassFigures are finite numbers487 figures, 0 invalid
PassLive source matches every figure487 of 487 figures match exactly after querying Stat-Xplore again (1 of 1 responses byte-identical)
PassStat-Xplore figures are currentlatest month May 2026 ended 152 days before retrieval (limit 230)
PassGOV.UK release headline agreesAll capped households, May 2026: Stat-Xplore's 163,811, rounded to the nearest 10,000, equals the release's 160,000, in https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-cap-number-of-households-capped-to-may-2026/benefit-cap-number-of-households-capped-to-may-2026. A rounded headline checks that month's total, not every month
PassGOV.UK release headline agreesHousing Benefit, May 2026: Stat-Xplore's 153, rounded to the nearest 10, equals the release's 150, in https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-cap-number-of-households-capped-to-may-2026/benefit-cap-number-of-households-capped-to-may-2026. A rounded headline checks that month's total, not every month
Not runNations add up to the totalEngland, Wales and Scotland sum to 163,472 in May 2026, −339 on the total of 163,811. DWP adjusts each figure by a small random amount and publishes no bound for it, so this gap is information, not a pass or a fail
Not runEnglish regions add up to EnglandThe nine English regions sum to 151,949 in May 2026, −16 on the total of 151,965. DWP adjusts each figure by a small random amount and publishes no bound for it, so this gap is information, not a pass or a fail
Not runUniversal Credit and Housing Benefit add up to the totalUniversal Credit and Housing Benefit sum to 163,811 in May 2026, +0 on the total of 163,811. DWP adjusts each figure by a small random amount and publishes no bound for it, so this gap is information, not a pass or a fail
PassSource page answershttps://www.gov.uk/government/collections/benefit-cap-statistics – HTTP 200

Notes

  • The benefit cap limits the total a working-age household can receive from certain benefits. Almost every capped household is capped on Universal Credit; Housing Benefit counts are now small. Stat-Xplore counts the two benefits in separate tables, so the total is their sum, as in DWP's own headline.
  • DWP's total, like its published figures, includes cases abroad and cases whose address is not known, so the nations may not add up exactly to it.
  • DWP adds a small random amount to every figure in Stat-Xplore to protect confidentiality (it calls this Introduced Random Error) and publishes no bound for it, so nations and regions may not add up exactly to the total. The verification page shows the gaps for information.
  • Each refresh compares the latest month with the headline of DWP's GOV.UK release, which is rounded, so it checks that month's total; every month is checked against Stat-Xplore itself, queried twice.
  • The full series is on DWP's Stat-Xplore (stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk), where anyone with a free account can build the same table.