Unfulfilled eligibility in the benefit system
Estimates of unfulfilled eligibility levels in the benefit system in Great Britain
These statistical reports provide estimates of unfulfilled eligibility for benefits administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and local authorities.
Accompanying each estimate report, we also publish data tables that provide the user with detailed estimates by different types of unfulfilled eligibility.
Find future DWP unfulfilled eligibility estimate release dates.
Please email us for feedback or more information: enquiries.fema@dwp.gov.uk
Next release
The next release of the Unfulfilled Eligibility in the benefit system statistics will be published on the 15 May 2025.
Changes to the next release
The following changes are minor updates and corrections following a full methodological review. These changes will not impact the global Unfulfilled Eligibility estimates. FYE 2024 published figures will be restated to reflect these changes and allow for accurate comparisons to be made.
Further detail on these changes will be included in the Background Information and Methodology note published alongside the statistics.
Correction to incorrectness figures FYE 2024
In the FYE 2024 release, Unfulfilled Eligibility was incorrectly excluded from a subset of cannot review cases which understated the overall incorrectness figures. FYE 2024 figures will be re-stated.
Changes to New Case Factors
In the FYE 2024 benefit review process, the payment (and period) that the Official Error and the Claimant Error/Fraud/Unfulfilled Eligibility check was carried out on was aligned for all benefits. To reflect this change, the New Case Factors have been aligned so that there is no difference to how they are carried out for Official Error and for Claimant Error/Fraud/Unfulfilled Eligibility.
Living Together Unfulfilled Eligibility Adjustments
Living together Unfulfilled Eligibility is calculated by comparing the amount of benefit the claimant and the partner were getting before the review, to the amount they are eligible for post review. Where the claimant and the partner are on the same benefit, the claimant’s proportion of the start award will be used to more accurately calculate the value of Unfulfilled Eligibility attributable to the claimant.
Error Code Framework Adjustments
Following the annual review of the Error Code Framework there have been a small number of changes to the mapping of unfulfilled eligibility reasons to publication categories.
Latest report
Related publications
Updates to this page
-
Added information about the next release of Unfulfilled Eligibility in the benefit system statistics and the changes that will happen.
-
First published.