DWP considering publicly publishing benefit claimant's data following pressure

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) could soon release the nationalities of benefit claimants following pressure to address fraud. The DWP is currently "exploring" the possibility of sharing nationality details in its benefits data.

Reform UK's MP for Great Yarmouth, Rupert Lowe, claims his persistent demands for "transparency and honesty" from the Labour government seem to be bearing fruit.

He received a ministerial response indicating that the department is looking into providing statistics on the immigration status of non-UK/Irish Universal Credit recipients. On social media, Lowe shared: "The department is exploring the feasibility of developing suitable official statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK/Irish Universal Credit customers."

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He posted content with the potential consideration: "I've been pushing the DWP to provide a nationality breakdown of those claiming benefits. It seems like they are considering it.

"This is positive, but let's see what happens. I will continue to hound the Government for more transparency and more honesty. We are making progress. The British people deserve to know the truth." However, there has been an unexpected delay in releasing most DWP benefits statistics via Stat-Xplore, originally set for Tuesday, November 12, 2024.

Statistics show that over the year leading up to February 2023, the number of State Pension recipients rose by 140,000 to 12.6 million. Conversely, Employment and Support Allowance fell by 5.6% to 1.6 million claimants, Income Support dropped by 19.7% to 150,000, and Jobseeker's Allowance decreased by 15.4% to 93,000 claimants.

From May 2022 to May 2023, the number of Housing Benefit claimants dropped by 7.1% to 2.4 million. Universal Credit has gradually replaced some older-style working-age benefits.

The most recent official statistics reveal that there were 6.1 million Universal Credit claimants as of July 2023. Furthermore, Benefit Combination statistics indicate that 22.6 million people claimed some combination of DWP benefits in February 2023.