DWP · Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: outturn and forecast (Spring Forecast 2026)
Universal Credit and equivalents, expenditure
£90bnmillion
Universal Credit and equivalents, expenditure was £90bn in the year ending March 2025, up 9.8% (£8bn) from £82bn in the year ending March 2024.
▲ 9.8% · +£8bn against Year ending March 2024 (previous period)
- DWP count
- Year ending March 2025
- published 26 March 2026
- £million, Nominal Terms
- row “Total UC and equivalents”
- column “2024/25”
- cell value 90041.60019208108
Year ending March 2020 to Year ending March 2025
What this measures
Spending on Universal Credit together with the legacy benefits it replaces (ESA, JSA, Income Support, working-age Housing Benefit and tax credits) in the financial year, in cash terms.
What this doesn’t measure
Universal Credit alone in years when most support was still paid through the legacy benefits; the series is built to be comparable across the transition.
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
- Universal Credit and equivalent
- Table
- £million, Nominal Terms
- Row
- Total UC and equivalents
- Column
- 2024/25
- Cell value
- 90041.60019208108
- Geography
- K03000001
- Unit
- £ million
- API
- /api/metrics/universal_credit_expenditure · /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.
- 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)