Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show that 2,990 people in the Isle of Wight area were claiming ‘out of work benefits’ (wording defined by ONS) during January 2023 – these figures also include Universal Credit figures.
That’s a rise of 85 since December 2022, when there were 2,905 claimants, and a fall of 420 from January 2022 (3,410 JSA claimants).
Breakdown of claimants
Of those claiming in January 2023:
- 1,715 were male (1,660 last month)
- 1,275 were female (1,245 last month)
- 10 were 16-17 (5 last month)
- 560 were aged 18 To 24 (525 last month)
- 340 were aged 18 To 21 (310 last month)
- 1,645 were aged 25 To 49 (1,630 last month)
- 780 were aged 50+ (745 last month)
That means 3.8 per cent of the resident population of area aged 16-64 is claiming out of work benefits – 1 per cent more than the rest of the South East (2.8 per cent), and 0.2 per cent more than the whole of the UK (3.6 per cent).
Image: Glenn Carstens-Peters under CC BY 2.0
