Alternative Claimant Count statistics January 2013 to
August 2021
Official experimental statistics on the number of people claiming
unemployment related benefits and estimates of the proportion
in-work.
From:
Department for Work and
Pensions
Published
12 October 2021
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
Documents
Alternative Claimant Count
statistics January 2013 to August 2021
In the United Kingdom, the number of people claiming unemployment
related benefits in August 2021 was 2.04 million.
This is a:
- 0.4% decrease in the last month
- 12.3% decrease in the last quarter
- 22.5% decrease in the last year
- 56.7% increase in the last 5 years
Some claimants of unemployment related benefits are wholly
unemployed and seeking work, others may be employed but with low
earnings that make them eligible for unemployment related benefit
support. Of the 2.04 million people claiming unemployment related
benefits in August, 15.1% had evidence of earnings or hours
worked. In comparison, this employment rate was 13.3% in August
2020 and 15.3% in August 2016.
On-flows to claimant unemployment are returning to pre-COVID
levels: the average monthly on-flow during the financial year
ending 2020 was around 200,000 compared to 228,000 in August
2021. Off-flows have fallen over the quarter but remain above the
pre-COVID levels: the average monthly off-flow during financial
year ending 2020 was 194,000 compared to 244,000 in August 2021.
Since the start of 2021, on-flows have remained below off-flows
resulting in a continued fall in the count.
The claimant unemployment rate (as a proportion of the population
aged 16 to 64) in August 2021 was 4.9%, no change from the
previous month. The rate has decreased by 1.4 percentage points
from August 2020. In the five years from August 2016, the rate
has increased by 1.7 percentage points.
Of the 2.04 million people claiming unemployment-related benefits
in the United Kingdom in
August 2021:
-
131,000 (6%) were claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance and 1.72
million (84%) were in the Searching for Work conditionality
group under Universal Credit – the remaining 185,000 (9%)
were ‘additionals’
-
1.16 million (57%) were male and 874,000 (43%) were female –
in comparison, males represented 58% in August 2020
-
341,000 (17%) were young people aged 16 to 24 – this compares
to 485,000 (18%) in August 2020, and 209,000 (16%) in August
2016
At regional level:
- the highest claimant unemployment rate in August 2021 was for
London at 6.6%
- the lowest was for the South West at 3.5%
- all regions saw claimant unemployment rates fall over the
year
At local authority
level (figures not seasonally adjusted):
- the claimant unemployment rate ranges from 1.7% in the Orkney
Islands to 10.2% in Birmingham
- all local authorities saw a decrease in the claimant
unemployment rate between August 2020 and 2021
