Rise in Universal Credit claimants unable to work due to health issues

More people claiming Universal Credit for health or disability reasons in South Tyneside are unable to work, new figures show.

- by Gazette Reporter

New figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show there were 9,809 people receiving Universal Credit for health-related reasons in South Tyneside as of June-a 34% increase on the 7,300 a year earlier.

Across Britain, this figure rose from 2.1 to 2.9 million people over the same period.

In South Tyneside, 71% of those receiving the benefit for health reasons had been assessed as having limited capability for work and work-related activity, meaning they were not required to undertake any interviews or job hunting.

This was higher than a year before, when this figure stood at 64%.

Nationally, this accounted for 2.2 million people, 75% of all health-related UC claimants. This was up from 1.5 million (71%) a year earlier.