16 July 2025, 14:30

By Naomi Smith

When it comes to Universal Credit, there is no foreign invasion - just ordinary people, overwhelmingly British, struggling to get by.

You can set your watch by it. Every few months, a figure on the populist right emerges from the backbenches or the comment pages with some variation of the same claim: that Britain’s welfare system is groaning under the weight of “foreigners” exploiting it.

This week, it was formerly Reform UK, now Independent MP Rupert Lowe, who crowed over the release of new government statistics on Universal Credit (UC) claimants, claiming victory for those demanding transparency on the immigration status of recipients.

But here’s the thing. Now that the numbers are out - they tell exactly the opposite story from the one Lowe implies.

The Department for Work and Pensions has just published detailed breakdowns of the 7.9 million people receiving Universal Credit as of June 2025. And the result? A staggering 83.6% of claimants are British or Irish nationals, or others who live and work here without any immigration restrictions. That’s 6.6........

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