DWP Universal Credit rule change today as payment cut nearly in half | Personal Finance | Finance
One type of Universal Credit benefit payment will be cut in half from April following a change to the rules being brought to Parliament today.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is today, Tuesday February 10, bringing legislation to Parliament that will introduce several welfare reforms for Universal Credit in particular.
Universal Credit is the catch-all benefit that many other benefits have been replaced by, with migration from other benefits set to complete by March.
Now, the government says it is ‘rebalancing’ benefits to ‘support more people into work’.
One key change being introduced is that from April, the Universal Credit health element payment will be slashed almost in half, with new claimants only able to get £217.96 per month, instead of £429.80.
At the same time, an inflation-busting increase to the standard rate will see £295 per year extra added to Universal Credit payments, or £760 by the end of the year.
The number of Universal Credit claimants in Britain jumped by more than a million in 2025 in the biggest annual increase since the start of the pandemic, figures show.
The claimant total stood at a provisional 8.40 million in December 2025, up from 7.36 million a year earlier, according to data published by the Department for Work & Pensions.
The rise of just over a million – an additional 1,044,865 claimants – is slightly larger than the one between 2023 and 2024, when 1,044,063 claimants were added.
The 2025 increase has been driven almost entirely by people who are not required to work, which includes those in full-time education, over the state pension age, with a child under the age of one or who are considered to have no prospect of work.
The number of UC claimants not required to work rose from 3.06 million in December 2024 to 4.17 million in December 2025, while the number of claimants in work fell slightly from 2.25 million to 2.19 million.
The Government has said the roll-out of Universal Credit across Britain should be completed in 2026, with any claimants still on older benefits – known as legacy benefits – due to be moved to Universal Credit by March.
