Universal Credit Scottish Choices – management information to March 2026
Management information on the number of Universal Credit (UC) recipients in Scotland who were offered, and who took up, UC Scottish choices.
Part of
Statistics of people in Scotland on UC are published by DWP via Stat-Xplore. These data are not directly comparable to this management information as they are counted on a different basis. In addition, not all UC clients in Scotland are eligible for the UC Scottish choices (see Background Notes).
The number of open claims in Scotland has increased steadily since 2022, reaching 600,000 in early 2026. This increase has primarily been due to the managed migration of clients from legacy benefits. The numbers of clients choosing each scheme has increased in a similar manner, reaching 187,520 (32% of eligible) active payments under MFP, and 88,770 (38% of eligible) with DPL (Chart 1).
Chart 1: Total open UC claims and active payments under each scheme
Contact
socialsecuritystatistics@gov.scot