Suffrago UK Data Hub
RankingsVerificationMethods

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.

Housing Benefit claims, Great Britain

Housing Benefit claims in Great Britain, falling as working-age claimants move to Universal Credit.

Great Britain

1,446,949

Mar 2026

Verified against source, 30 October 2026, 11:48 UTC
Great Britain
01m2m3m4m5mApr 18Aug 19Dec 20Apr 22Aug 23Dec 24Mar 261.4m

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

Data table

96 periods, newest first

PeriodGreat Britain
Mar 20261,446,949
Feb 20261,451,978
Jan 20261,462,284
Dec 20251,460,514
Nov 20251,477,041
Oct 20251,522,456
Sep 20251,562,988
Aug 20251,596,629
Jul 20251,656,034
Jun 20251,702,483
May 20251,769,380
Apr 20251,805,482
Mar 20251,849,501
Feb 20251,884,962
Jan 20251,940,965
Dec 20241,954,657
Nov 20241,984,510
Oct 20242,041,010
Sep 20242,082,823
Aug 20242,149,305
Jul 20242,204,546
Jun 20242,240,385
May 20242,269,410
Apr 20242,274,029
Mar 20242,279,192
Feb 20242,302,900
Jan 20242,311,184
Dec 20232,314,278
Nov 20232,329,817
Oct 20232,340,425
Sep 20232,351,313
Aug 20232,369,902
Jul 20232,377,704
Jun 20232,394,371
May 20232,401,389
Apr 20232,407,640
Mar 20232,427,191
Feb 20232,440,304
Jan 20232,453,812
Dec 20222,466,559
Nov 20222,479,586
Oct 20222,494,347
Sep 20222,519,567
Aug 20222,533,633
Jul 20222,549,658
Jun 20222,573,491
May 20222,584,414
Apr 20222,593,111
Mar 20222,620,211
Feb 20222,639,015
Jan 20222,657,044
Dec 20212,673,436
Nov 20212,692,445
Oct 20212,712,949
Sep 20212,747,751
Aug 20212,766,491
Jul 20212,795,454
Jun 20212,815,739
May 20212,833,956
Apr 20212,861,478
Mar 20212,881,718
Feb 20212,906,660
Jan 20212,926,023
Dec 20202,945,039
Nov 20202,966,172
Oct 20202,999,695
Sep 20203,023,886
Aug 20203,045,794
Jul 20203,073,204
Jun 20203,091,739
May 20203,111,964
Apr 20203,155,992
Mar 20203,184,561
Feb 20203,217,576
Jan 20203,256,799
Dec 20193,272,506
Nov 20193,307,298
Oct 20193,359,065
Sep 20193,400,804
Aug 20193,452,410
Jul 20193,493,144
Jun 20193,538,957
May 20193,600,453
Apr 20193,642,548
Mar 20193,694,785
Feb 20193,758,355
Jan 20193,825,521
Dec 20183,855,371
Nov 20183,927,728
Oct 20183,972,906
Sep 20184,017,398
Aug 20184,071,925
Jul 20184,102,041
Jun 20184,135,214
May 20184,177,820
Apr 20184,196,260

Nations and English regions, Mar 2026

AreaNumber
Great Britain1,446,949
England1,241,528
Wales69,649
Scotland134,648
North East74,621
North West172,466
Yorkshire and The Humber115,667
East Midlands88,730
West Midlands150,824
East of England115,069
London254,031
South East163,871
South West106,247

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/dwp-statistical-summaries
Licence
Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Retrieved
30 October 2026, 11:44 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, 11:48 UTC Run at 30 October 2026, 11:48 UTC; 109 of 109 figures matched the live source.

ResultCheckDetail
PassProvenance recordedDepartment for Work and Pensions, Stat-Xplore; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-10-30T11:44:16Z; 1 Stat-Xplore response, read in the Actions job and never stored
PassRe-parsing the response reproduces figures109 of 109 figures reproduced by reading the response again in the Actions job
PassFigures are finite numbers109 figures, 0 invalid
PassLive source matches every figure109 of 109 figures match exactly after querying Stat-Xplore again (1 of 1 responses byte-identical)
PassStat-Xplore figures are currentlatest month March 2026 ended 213 days before retrieval (limit 560)
PassGOV.UK annual compendium agreesGreat Britain, March 2026: Stat-Xplore's 1,446,949, rounded to the nearest 1,000, equals the compendium's 1,447,000, in https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-dwp-benefits-statistics-compendium-2026/annual-dwp-benefits-statistics-compendium-2026. Earlier months are checked by the live re-fetch only
Not runNations add up to the totalEngland, Wales and Scotland sum to 1,445,825 in March 2026, −1,124 on the total of 1,446,949. 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 1,241,526 in March 2026, −2 on the total of 1,241,528. 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/dwp-statistical-summaries – HTTP 200

Notes

  • Claims, not people: a couple make one claim. Most working-age claimants have moved to Universal Credit's housing element; Housing Benefit continues mainly for pensioners and supported or temporary housing.
  • 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 March figure with DWP's Annual DWP Benefits Statistics Compendium on GOV.UK, to the nearest thousand; every other 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.