Universal Credit: Reform

No decision has been made on this policy. The key principle of our focus for 18-21 year olds should be helping them to be earning or learning, because of the long-term scarring effects for young people of a period of unemployment. That is why we are consulting on delaying access to the UC health top up until age 22 with savings reinvested into work support and training opportunities.

Universal Credit Health caseload statistics are available on DWP Stat-Xplore and were most recently updated with December 2024 data.

In December 2024, 13,650 and 68,350 16- to 21-year-olds in Great Britain were in the Limited Capability for Work (LCW) and Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) groups respectively.

Table: 16–21-year-olds in (a) Dunfermline and Dollar, (b) Scotland and (c) Great Britain on the UC Health caseload (December 2024)

1. Statistical disclosure control has been applied to this table to avoid the release of confidential data and are rounded to the nearest 10.
2. Totals may not sum due to this disclosure control and rounding.
3. Figures are a count of the number of people on Universal Credit health on the second Thursday of the month.
4. Figures are Experimental Official Statistics

Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/ (opens in new window). An account is not required to use Stat- Xplore, the ‘Guest Login’ feature gives instant access to the main functions.