Person job seeking in the paper, sat at table with cup of tea

Number of Isle of Wight residents seeking out of work benefits in August

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show that 5,310 people in the Isle of Wight area were claiming ‘out of work benefits’ during August 2020 – these figures also includes Universal Credit figures (see below).

That’s a fall of 150 since July 2020, when there were 5,460 claimants, and a rise of 3,325 from August 2019 (1,985 JSA claimants).

Breakdown of claimants
Of those claiming in August 2020,

  • 3,240 were male
  • 2,070 were female
  • 10 were 16-17
  • 1,045 were aged 18 To 24
  • (585 were aged 18 To 21)
  • 2,775 were aged 25 To 49
  • 1,485 were aged 50+

That means 6.7% of the resident population of area aged 16-64 is claiming out of work benefits – 1.3% more than the rest of the South East (5.4%), and 0.1% more than the whole of the UK (6.6%).

Image: slightlyeverything under CC BY 2.0