Overview
- From April, households on the standard Universal Credit rate will receive an extra £295 a year, with single claimants aged 25 and over seeing monthly payments rise from £400.14 to £424.90.
- A new £217.26 per month health element will apply to new applicants, while existing recipients and people with the most severe or lifelong conditions, including those nearing end of life, remain on the £429.80 rate.
- Officials describe the uplift as the first sustained above-inflation increase to the Universal Credit standard allowance for nearly four million households.
- The government has pledged more than £3.5 billion for employment support through the end of the decade as part of the welfare package.
- The reforms are set against ONS data showing unemployment at 5.1% between September and November, up from 4.4% a year earlier, and the DWP projects the annual uplift could reach about £760 for some by decade’s end.