Dataset: People on Universal Credit
Description
Universal Credit can be claimed by people who are either in or out of employment.
An individual on Universal Credit at the count date will be recorded as in employment if they have employment earnings within the Universal Credit assessment period which spans the count date. They may not be in employment precisely on the count date.
Employment for this measure is defined as being employed as an employee. It does not include self-employement.
Classification
The employment indicator for claimants can take the following values:
In employment
Not in employment
Not available
Total number of categories: 3
Quality Statement
Information on the employment status of people on Universal Credit is not available prior to November 2013 due to the limitations of the data recorded at the time.
Employment status of a claimant on the count date is derived from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Real Time Information (RTI) system at the count date. In exceptional circumstances, claimants may self-declare their employment earnings.
The employment indicator for the latest month is subject to revision in future releases.
A claimant's employment status and conditionality regime may not always match due to differences in how the data is recorded. Therefore, care should be taken when interpreting any tables created by cross-tabulating these two variables.
Conditionality Regime is based on an individual's circumstances on the count date.
Employment Indicator shows whether earnings were recorded within an individual's completed Universal Credit assessment period closest to the count date.
It is possible for an individual to be 'In Work' using one measure and 'Not in Work' using the other as shown in the example below.
