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DWP · Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: outturn and forecast (Spring Forecast 2026)

Incapacity benefits caseload

Year ending March 2025 Final

3,549,000people

Incapacity benefits caseload was 3,549,000 people at 31 March 2025, up 7.8% (258,000) from 3,291,000 at 31 March 2024.

▲ 7.8% · +258,000 against Year ending March 2024 (previous period)

  1. DWP snapshot
  2. Year ending March 2025
  3. published 26 March 2026
  4. Incapacity benefits caseload, thousands
  5. row “Total incapacity-related benefits*”
  6. column “2024/25”
  7. cell value 3549

Year ending March 2025 is the highest figure in the published series: 3,549,000. Rule: highest of the 77 periods published here (Year ending March 1949 to Year ending March 2025).

Year ending March 1949 to Year ending March 2025

Incapacity benefits caseload: Year ending March 1949 to Year ending March 2025ConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabourLabourLabourCoalitionConservativeConservativeConservativeLabour01m2m3m19501960197019801990200020102020Year ending March 1949: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1950: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1951: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1952: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1953: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1954: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1955: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1956: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1957: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1958: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1959: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1960: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1961: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1962: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1963: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1964: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1965: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1966: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1967: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1968: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1969: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1970: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1971: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1972: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1973: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1974: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1975: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1976: 0 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1977: 103,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1978: 107,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1979: 1,254,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1980: 1,272,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1981: 1,270,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1982: 1,340,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1983: 1,387,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1984: 1,332,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1985: 1,339,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1986: 1,408,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1987: 1,446,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1988: 1,531,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1989: 1,662,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1990: 1,799,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1991: 1,959,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1992: 2,172,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1993: 2,409,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1994: 2,594,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1995: 2,765,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1996: 2,848,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1997: 2,819,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1998: 2,813,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 1999: 2,749,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2000: 2,731,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2001: 2,767,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2002: 2,797,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2003: 2,814,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2004: 2,819,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2005: 2,811,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2006: 2,763,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2007: 2,718,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2008: 2,678,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2009: 2,719,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2010: 2,662,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2011: 2,636,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2012: 2,608,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2013: 2,541,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2014: 2,476,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2015: 2,531,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2016: 2,543,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2017: 2,491,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2018: 2,399,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2019: 2,227,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2020: 2,559,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2021: 2,660,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2022: 2,882,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2023: 3,072,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2024: 3,291,000 people · published 26 March 2026Year ending March 2025: 3,549,000 people · published 26 March 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

The average number of people receiving an incapacity-related benefit over the financial year.

What this doesn’t measure

Economic inactivity because of ill health, which is a labour market measure from a survey, not a benefit count.

Important caveat

These are DWP's own expenditure and caseload tables for Great Britain, by financial year. Expenditure is in cash terms unless the metric says real terms, in which case DWP has restated it at 2026/27 prices with the GDP deflator. Caseloads are averages over the year, not the number at any date, and a person can appear in more than one benefit's caseload. Benefits devolved to Scotland leave these tables from the year of transfer, so recent years cover a smaller population than earlier ones for the affected benefits. Forecast years in the same workbook are not shown here.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher
DWP
Publication
Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: outturn and forecast (Spring Forecast 2026)
Release
Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: Spring Forecast 2026, published 26 March 2026
Source file
dwp_outturn.xlsx
File SHA-256
11a591e4a2144ed6a686be6a9ded4e5d5b3b8d4887bd57c1ff0632bd251009de
Retrieved
3 September 2026
Sheet
Incapacity benefits
Table
Incapacity benefits caseload, thousands
Row
Total incapacity-related benefits*
Column
2024/25
Cell value
3549 (× 1,000 = 3,549,000 people)
Geography
K03000001
Unit
people
API
/api/metrics/incapacity_benefit_caseload · /series · /vintages

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Conservative 2019–20242,227,000Year ending March 20193,291,000Year ending March 2024↑ 47.8%
Conservative 2017–20192,491,000Year ending March 20172,227,000Year ending March 2019↓ 10.6%
Conservative 2015–20172,531,000Year ending March 20152,491,000Year ending March 2017↓ 1.6%
Coalition 2010–20152,662,000Year ending March 20102,531,000Year ending March 2015↓ 4.9%
Labour 2005–20102,811,000Year ending March 20052,662,000Year ending March 2010↓ 5.3%
Labour 2001–20052,767,000Year ending March 20012,811,000Year ending March 2005↑ 1.6%
Labour 1997–20012,819,000Year ending March 19972,767,000Year ending March 2001↓ 1.8%
Conservative 1992–19972,172,000Year ending March 19922,819,000Year ending March 1997↑ 29.8%
Conservative 1987–19921,446,000Year ending March 19872,172,000Year ending March 1992↑ 50.2%
Conservative 1983–19871,387,000Year ending March 19831,446,000Year ending March 1987↑ 4.3%
Conservative 1979–19831,254,000Year ending March 19791,387,000Year ending March 1983↑ 10.6%

Full comparison with chart

Release
Benefit expenditure and caseload tables: Spring Forecast 2026 · publication page
Last updated
26 March 2026
Next release expected
Not yet announced (estimated from the usual cadence)