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DWP · Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: outturn and forecast (Spring Forecast 2026)

Housing support caseload

Year ending March 2025 Final

2,072,000households

Housing support caseload was 2,072,000 households at 31 March 2025, down 11.9% (279,000) from 2,351,000 at 31 March 2024.

▼ 11.9% · −279,000 against Year ending March 2024 (previous period)

  1. DWP snapshot
  2. Year ending March 2025
  3. published 26 March 2026
  4. Housing benefits caseloads, thousands
  5. row “Total”
  6. column “2024/25”
  7. cell value 2072

Year ending March 2025 is the lowest figure in the published series: 2,072,000. Rule: lowest of the 47 periods published here (Year ending March 1979 to Year ending March 2025).

Year ending March 1979 to Year ending March 2025

Housing support caseload: Year ending March 1979 to Year ending March 2025ConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabourLabourLabourLabourCoalitionConservativeConservativeConservativeLabour02m4m19801990200020102020Year ending March 1979: 3,408,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1980: 3,314,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1981: 3,556,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1982: 4,151,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1983: 4,431,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1984: 4,750,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1985: 4,825,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1986: 4,860,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1987: 4,900,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1988: 4,860,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1989: 3,996,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1990: 3,886,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1991: 3,950,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1992: 4,120,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1993: 4,380,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1994: 4,601,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1995: 4,692,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1996: 4,757,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1997: 4,740,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1998: 4,588,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1999: 4,423,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2000: 4,187,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2001: 3,946,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2002: 3,846,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2003: 3,807,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2004: 3,812,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2005: 3,940,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2006: 3,986,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2007: 4,021,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2008: 4,036,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2009: 4,166,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2010: 4,547,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2011: 4,798,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2012: 4,932,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2013: 5,053,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2014: 5,026,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2015: 4,921,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2016: 4,777,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2017: 4,594,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2018: 4,371,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2019: 3,984,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2020: 3,394,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2021: 3,008,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2022: 2,733,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2023: 2,509,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2024: 2,351,000 households · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2025: 2,072,000 households · published 26 March 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

The average number of households receiving help with housing costs through Housing Benefit or Universal Credit over the financial year.

What this doesn’t measure

How much of each household's rent is covered.

Important caveat

These are DWP's own expenditure and caseload tables for Great Britain, by financial year. Expenditure is in cash terms unless the metric says real terms, in which case DWP has restated it at 2026/27 prices with the GDP deflator. Caseloads are averages over the year, not the number at any date, and a person can appear in more than one benefit's caseload. Benefits devolved to Scotland leave these tables from the year of transfer, so recent years cover a smaller population than earlier ones for the affected benefits. Forecast years in the same workbook are not shown here.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher
DWP
Publication
Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: outturn and forecast (Spring Forecast 2026)
Release
Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: Spring Forecast 2026, published 26 March 2026
Source file
dwp_outturn.xlsx
File SHA-256
11a591e4a2144ed6a686be6a9ded4e5d5b3b8d4887bd57c1ff0632bd251009de
Retrieved
3 September 2026
Sheet
Housing benefits
Table
Housing benefits caseloads, thousands
Row
Total
Column
2024/25
Cell value
2072 (× 1,000 = 2,072,000 households)
Geography
K03000001
Unit
households
API
/api/metrics/housing_support_caseload · /series · /vintages

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Conservative 2019–20243,984,000Year ending March 20192,351,000Year ending March 2024↓ 41.0%
Conservative 2017–20194,594,000Year ending March 20173,984,000Year ending March 2019↓ 13.3%
Conservative 2015–20174,921,000Year ending March 20154,594,000Year ending March 2017↓ 6.6%
Coalition 2010–20154,547,000Year ending March 20104,921,000Year ending March 2015↑ 8.2%
Labour 2005–20103,940,000Year ending March 20054,547,000Year ending March 2010↑ 15.4%
Labour 2001–20053,946,000Year ending March 20013,940,000Year ending March 2005↓ 0.2%
Labour 1997–20014,740,000Year ending March 19973,946,000Year ending March 2001↓ 16.8%
Conservative 1992–19974,120,000Year ending March 19924,740,000Year ending March 1997↑ 15.0%
Conservative 1987–19924,900,000Year ending March 19874,120,000Year ending March 1992↓ 15.9%
Conservative 1983–19874,431,000Year ending March 19834,900,000Year ending March 1987↑ 10.6%
Conservative 1979–19833,408,000Year ending March 19794,431,000Year ending March 1983↑ 30.0%

Full comparison with chart

Release
Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: Spring Forecast 2026 · publication page
Last updated
26 March 2026
Next release expected
Not yet announced (estimated from the usual cadence)