PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Unemployment Benefits (15 January 2020)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of variations in the ratio of unemployment benefit recipients, including job seeker's allowance and universal credit to ILO-definition unemployment by (a) age group, (b) region, (c) previous occupation and (d) other segmentation in the last five years.

Asked by:
Damian Hinds (Conservative)

Over the last five years, the ratio between the Alternative Claimant Count (ACC) measure of claimant unemployment[1], and the ONS official measure of unemployment (based on the International Labour Organisation’s definition of unemployment)[2], has increased. This is shown in the table below and chart attached.

	ACC: claimant unemployment level (thousands)	ONS National Statistic: unemployment level (thousands)	Ratio: ACC / Unemployment
Aug-14	1,545	2,044	0.76
Aug-15	1,299	1,838	0.71
Aug-16	1,219	1,691	0.72
Aug-17	1,194	1,500	0.80
Aug-18	1,195	1,446	0.83
Aug-19	1,263	1,374	0.92

The two measures of unemployment should not be expected to match:

• Some individuals who are unemployed according to the ACC measure of claimant unemployment may be working but with low earnings (and thus would continue to receive support). They would then be included in the ACC measure of claimant unemployment but not the ONS official measure of unemployment.
• Some individuals who are unemployed according to the ONS official measure may not be eligible for means-tested support, or may not wish to claim the support available. They would then be included in the ONS official measure of unemployment but not the ACC measure of claimant unemployment.

The tables below show how the ratio between the two measures of unemployment has varied over the last five years, for different ages, genders and regions. The variation by previous occupation is not available.

Age	ACC: claimant unemployment level (thousands)		ONS National Statistic: unemployment level (thousands)		Ratio: ACC / Unemployment
	Aug-14	Aug-19	Aug-14	Aug-19	Aug-14	Aug-19
16-24	284	210	830	570	0.34	0.37
25-34	388	322	411	263	0.94	1.22
35-49	490	398	474	263	1.03	1.52
50+	384	334	339	278	1.13	1.20

Gender	ACC: claimant unemployment level (thousands)		ONS National Statistic: unemployment level (thousands)		Ratio: ACC / Unemployment
	Aug-14	Aug-19	Aug-14	Aug-19	Aug-14	Aug-19
Men	844	672	1,125	764	0.75	0.88
Women	702	591	919	609	0.76	0.97

Region	ACC: claimant unemployment level (thousands)		ONS National Statistic: unemployment level (thousands)		Ratio: ACC / Unemployment
	Aug-14	Aug-19	Aug-14	Aug-19	Aug-14	Aug-19
NE	89	75	122	77	0.73	0.97
NW	191	167	223	166	0.86	1.01
Y&H	163	119	207	116	0.79	1.02
E Mids	107	83	139	113	0.77	0.73
W Mids	170	147	205	124	0.83	1.18
East	113	91	164	113	0.69	0.81
London	251	206	302	233	0.83	0.88
SE	141	122	216	156	0.65	0.78
SW	90	75	135	80	0.67	0.94
Wales	85	63	104	59	0.81	1.06
Scotland	144	115	174	113	0.83	1.02

For nearly all of the categories (with the exception of East Midlands), the ratio of ‘ACC claimant unemployment’ to ‘ONS official unemployment’ has increased between 2014 and 2019. This is predominantly due to a decrease in the ONS official measure of unemployment.

[1] Alterative Claimant Count: Provides a consistent measure of claimant unemployed by modelling what the Claimant Count would have been had Universal Credit been fully rolled-out.

[2] ILO-definition of unemployment: Individuals without a job who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks, and are available to start work within the next two weeks.

Answered by:
Mims Davies (Conservative)
14 February 2020