Coronavirus: Young people on benefits double in lockdown

In July 2020, we reported how more than one in six young people are now claiming out-of-work benefits in some parts of the UK.

Claimants of universal credit or jobseeker's allowance aged 18-24 doubled in the UK in the last three months - standing at more than 500,000.

Parts of Liverpool and Blackpool have been worst hit, with closures of pubs, cafes and restaurants all contributing.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a £2bn scheme to help young workers.

In the UK, 2.6 million people are currently claiming Universal Credit (UC) or Jobseekers' Allowance (JSA) and are required to "seek work". A fifth of those - some 514,770 young people - are aged between 18 and 24.

The number of young new claimants to have signed on between March and June is 276,000 - more than doubling over three months.

How we got the data

We used the Office for National Statistics data on the number of people claiming out of work benefits, which is released through the Nomis Official Labour Market Statistics webpage.

From there we exported a CSV showing the 'unadjusted' claimant rate for 18-24 year olds thoughout the lockdown period - March to June. We also took a seven-year view, comparing the rate in June going back to the launch of Universal Credit in 2013. The data geography in both cases is broken down by constituency.

In order to work out the proportion of young people claiming the benefits in each area we used the latest ONS population data from December 2019 and filtered age to between 18 and 24. We then matched the population figures to each constituency using the VLookup tool. From here we could work out what per cent of the 18-24 population in each constituency was claiming out-of-work benefits.

How the pack was used

The story featured on the BBC UK homepage and attracted more than 600,000 views. It also featured as the main phone-in stories for both Radio One's Newsbeat and the Victoria Derbyshire Show on the BBC News Channel

Partners to use the story pack included:

• Dundee Evening Telegraph: Dundee MP ‘not surprised’ as youth unemployment in city rises sharply in a month 20 July 2020
• Stowmarket Mercury: Shock figures show rise in out-of-work young people post lockdown 20 July 2020
• East Anglian Daily Times: Shock figures show rise in out-of-work young people post lockdown 20 July 2020
• Lynn News: Number of young people claiming out-of-work benefits doubles in West Norfolk during coronavirus lockdown 20 July 2020
• Sussex Live: Pandemic causes huge surge in number of young people claiming benefits in Sussex 21 July 2020
• Islington Tribune: Coronavirus crisis leads to rise in unemployed young people 24 July 2020

Data sources

• NOMIS

Quotes and interviews

• Andrew Adams, aged 21, unemployed in Liverpool
• Gill Bainbridge, chief executive, Merseyside Youth Association
• Grace Dembowicz, aged 22, new graduate
• Professor Guy Michaels, London School of Economics
• Laura-Jane Rawlings, chief executive, Youth Employment UK
• Spokesman, Department for Work and Pensions

Visualisation

• Multiple choropleth map: percentage of people aged 18-24 on Jobseeker's Allowance or claiming Universal Credit
• Bar chart: Highest rates of 18-24-year-olds claiming work-related benefits, by area
• Bar chart: Number of 18-24-year-olds claiming work-related benefits since start of Universal Credit, 2013-2020