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Commons Briefing paper by Brigid Francis-Devine. It was first published on Monday, 2 March 2026. It was last updated on Tuesday, 21 July 2026.


Constituency data: People claiming unemployment benefits

This page provides constituency-level data on people claiming unemployment benefits, or the ‘claimant count’.

The claimant count is the number of people who are claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, or are claiming Universal Credit and are required to seek work.

The claimant rate is the number of claimants as a proportion of residents aged 16–64.

Further information on the claimant count is provided in the Library briefing  People claiming unemployment benefits by constituency.

Find which constituency you live in. 

Use the dropdown menu to select the constituency you’re interested in and view key statistics.

Open a printable version

If you would like to access this information in an alternative format please email papers@parliament.uk and we will review your request.

Notes

Figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Under Universal Credit, a broader span of claimants are required to look for work than under Jobseeker’s Allowance. This has the effect of increasing the number of unemployed claimants.

The coronavirus pandemic also increased the number of unemployed claimants, and the claimant count rose much more quickly than the unemployment rate during coronavirus lockdowns.

For more details see the Library’s briefing paper on Understanding statistics on employment, unemployment and earnings.

Source

ONS, Claimant count by sex and age, via Nomis


Secondary information

Type
Research briefing
Reference
CBP-10530 
Category
Data dashboards
Subjects
Constituencies Jobseeker's allowance Recipients Universal credit Unemployment
Contains statistics
Yes
Published by
Economic Policy and Statistics Section
House of Commons Library
Link
View this Research briefing on researchbriefings.parliament.uk