FOI ref: FOI-2023-1257
You asked
Please provide the number of people who are over 55 who are claiming universal credit, the number of that group who are claiming their private pensions, and also the average amount of that pension income.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry concerning the number of people aged over 55 years who are receiving Universal Credit and private pensions.
Based on weighted counts of the Household Finances Survey data for financial year ending 2022, there are an estimated 475,000 individuals receiving Universal Credit who are aged over 55 years, which due to survey non-response for this particular cohort is likely to be an underestimate of those in receipt of Universal Credit. Of these, 57,000 individuals are also receiving income from private pensions as detailed in the associated download named 'Table 1 - Number of individuals receiving Universal credit and income from Private Pensions, financial year ending 2022, UK'.
You may also be interested in the Universal Credit Statistics published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which have been developed to provide the primary official source of information about people and households on Universal Credit in the UK, and claims and starts to Universal Credit.