How many people claim Housing Benefit?

There were 1,446,900 Housing Benefit claims in Great Britain in March 2026, down 23.2% since February 2025, according to DWP's Annual Benefits Statistics Compendium 2026. The fall is mainly because working-age claimants are moving to Universal Credit, which has its own housing element. Housing Benefit continues for most pensioners and for people in supported or temporary housing.

For private renters, help with rent is limited by the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) for the area and household size. The LHA rates for April 2026 to March 2027 are the same as the rates set in April 2024, according to the Valuation Office Agency. To count everyone getting help with rent, add Universal Credit housing element cases from Stat-Xplore, which breaks figures down by council and tenure.

Official sources: Annual DWP Benefits Statistics Compendium 2026 · Local Housing Allowance rates April 2026 to March 2027 · Stat-Xplore

When is the next figure out?

DWP statistics are pre-announced on the GOV.UK research and statistics calendar and published at 9:30am. Universal Credit statistics moved from monthly to quarterly releases in February, May, August and November after a 2026 consultation, with the final monthly release on 14 April 2026; provisional estimates were dropped and each quarterly release adds three months of finalised data. The benefits compendium, Benefit Combinations and National Insurance number allocations are now released together once a year. Fraud and error estimates appear each spring, and expenditure tables follow the Budget and spring forecast.

Every official release due in the next two weeks is on the release calendar.

Where the figures come from

• Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics and Stat-Xplore
  Where to find DWP figures on Universal Credit, PIP, State Pension and Pension Credit, how to build a Stat-Xplore table and use the free Open Data API.
• MHCLG housing and homelessness statistics (with MoJ possessions and devolved equivalents)
  Official figures on temporary accommodation, rough sleeping, waiting lists, social lettings, evictions and tenure in England and the rest of the UK.

Related questions

• How many people claim benefits in the UK?
• How many people claim Universal Credit?
• What is Stat-Xplore and how do I use it?

This answer says where the official figures are published and how they are defined. It gives no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request. More questions about homelessness, social housing and renting: all Homelessness, social housing and renting questions.