Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show that 2,930 people in the Isle of Wight area were claiming ‘out of work benefits’ (wording defined by ONS) during April 2023 – these figures also include Universal Credit figures.
That’s a fall of 130 since March 2023, when there were 3,060 claimants, and a fall of 180 from April 2022 (3,110 JSA claimants).
Breakdown of claimants
Of those claiming in April 2023:
- 1,655 were male (1,725 last month)
- 1,275 were female (1,335 last month)
- 5 were 16-17 (10 last month)
- 530 were aged 18 To 24 (575 last month)
- 315 were aged 18 To 21 (340 last month)
- 1,625 were aged 25 To 49 (1,675 last month)
- 770 were aged 50+ (810 last month)
National comparison
That means 3.7 per cent of the resident population of area aged 16-64 is claiming out of work benefits – 0.8 per cent more than the rest of the South East (2.9 per cent), and 0.1 per cent less than the whole of the UK (3.8 per cent).
Image: imcountingufoz under CC BY 2.0
