Official Statistics

Total durations on incapacity benefits for claimants on Universal Credit with Limited Capability for Work, Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity, or on Employment and Support Allowance in August 2024

Published 18 March 2025

Introduction

This publication provides the total durations across Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit Health for claimants on Universal Credit Health (UC-H) with Limited Capability for Work (LCW), Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA), or on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in August 2024.

Background

The number of working age people in receipt of incapacity benefits – Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit (UC) with a health condition – increased from 2.6 million in the financial year 2019 to 2020 to 3.3 million in the financial year 2023 to 2024^{[footnote 1]}.

Growth in the caseload is a combination of changes to numbers being awarded benefit, and how long people stay on the benefit (duration). Information on duration is available in published data for both ESA and UC (though not currently UC-H), but only for each benefit separately. However, claimants on both ESA and UC-H could have long durations across different incapacity benefits, so looking at individual benefits gives a misleading impression of how long someone has been receiving this type of support. This analysis looks at the durations of claimants on the caseload, including the time spent on legacy incapacity benefits for those claimants that have joined UC-H or ESA directly from a legacy benefit.

ESA was introduced in October 2008, gradually replacing Incapacity Benefit (IB), Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) and Income Support (IS) for those with a health condition or disability. Most IB and SDA claimants were reassessed for eligibility for ESA between 2011 and 2014; since IS was usually paid with IB, SDA or an IB credit (given for National Insurance purposes) we do not consider IS further here, though there will a small number of people excluded as a consequence. While UC was introduced in April 2013, it didn’t become widely available to all claimant types, including those with health conditions until May 2016. At present the remaining income-based ESA claimants are being migrated to UC under the Move to UC process.

Methodology

The analysis is based on case-level UC and ESA data, extracted from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP’s) computer systems. This does not include any information that would enable individuals to be identified.

For claimants on UC-H LCW or LCWRA

A claimant’s duration on UC-H was calculated to be the time from the Work Capability Assessment decision date, which is the date the LCW or LCWRA decision is first recorded, to the August 2024 caseload date. Claimants were then matched to ESA data and where a claimant joined UC-H within 90 days of their last ESA claim ending, this was assumed to be a ‘direct move’ from ESA to UC-H. For these claimants, their duration was calculated to be from the start of that ESA claim to the August 2024 caseload date.

These ESA claimants were then matched to Incapacity Benefit (IB) and Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) data and where a claimant joined ESA within 90 days of their last IB or SDA claim ending, this was assumed to be a ‘direct move’ from IB/SDA to ESA. For these claimants, their duration was calculated to be from the start of that IB/SDA claim to the August 2024 caseload date.

Note, this UC analysis is concerned only with claimants at the LCW or LCWRA stage because the durations of claimants pre-Work Capability Assessment (WCA) (also known as the fit-note stage) can be difficult to measure. Claimants can be on the fit-note stage with a short-term illness that will not result in a WCA referral, or their fit-note could expire before they seek a new one, which means they can move on and off the Health Journey multiple times.

For claimants on ESA

Their duration is calculated as the time between starting their ESA claim and the date of the August 2024 caseload. Claimants were then matched to IB and SDA data and where a claimant joined ESA within 90 days of their last IB or SDA claim ending this was assumed to be a ‘direct move’ from IB/SDA to ESA. For these claimants, their duration was calculated to be from the start of that IB/SDA claim to the August 2024 caseload date.

For both sets of claimants, multiple spells on and off incapacity benefits have not been included here. Those complex journeys are a challenge to identify and analyse within the data, so we have opted for the simpler, direct measure. Dual claimants (claimants on both UC-H and ESA in August 2024) are only counted once.

Table: The number of claimants on UC-H LCWRA, UC-H LCW or ESA in August 2024 by duration of claim, including durations on IB and SDA

	Number	Percentage
Under 2 years	1,082,000	33.2%
Between 2 and up to 5 years	792,000	24.3%
Between 5 and up to 10 years	540,000	16.6%
Between 10 and up to 15 years	360,000	11%
15 years and longer	488,000	14.9%
Total	3,262,000	100%

The table shows that over one in four claimants (26%) have been on incapacity benefits for longer than ten years. The total duration for each claimant across all benefits was used to calculate a total average duration of over seven years for all claimants on the combined caseload in August 2024

About this analysis

The figures presented in this release are based on internal analysis using Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance case-level administrative data. As these are outturn figures, using 100% of claimants in receipt of these benefits, the level of uncertainty in the analysis is low. However, the results may not match exactly the totals released as ESA and UC-H Official Caseload statistics.

Statement of Compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

The Code of Practice for Statistics (the Code) is built around 3 main concepts, or pillars:

• trustworthiness – is about having confidence in the people and organisations that publish statistics
• quality – is about using data and methods that produce statistics
• value – is about publishing statistics that support society’s needs

The following explains how we have applied the pillars of the Code in a proportionate way.

Trustworthiness

DWP analysts work to a professional competency framework and Civil Service core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity, and impartiality. The analysis in this release has been scrutinised and received sign off by the expert lead analyst.

We protect the security of our data in order to maintain the privacy of the citizen, fulfil relevant legal obligations and uphold our obligation that no statistics will be produced that are likely to identify an individual, while at the same time taking account of our obligation to obtain maximum value from the data we hold for statistical purposes. All analysts are given security training and the majority of data accessed by analysts is obfuscated and access is business case controlled based to the minimum data required.

The figures have been seen in advance by Ministers and officials, in line with the Code, where pre-release access does not apply for an ad hoc analysis release.

Quality

The data which underpins this information is taken directly from departmental systems, which are relied upon by DWP for the administration and operation of Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit.

Quality assurance has taken place in line with the standards usually applied to DWP ad hoc releases, with an internal check that the results shown are robust, and checked against published data.

Value

Releasing this information serves the public interest regarding the growth in receipt of incapacity benefits and the durations of claimants on the recent caseload.

Contact information

For press enquiries contact the DWP Press Office.

1. Benefit Expenditure and Caseload Tables, Autumn 2024 ↩