Macroeconomics For Dummies®, uk edition Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Claimant Count: Talking about benefits


The Claimant Count is another measure of unemployment that’s used in the UK. To be included in the Claimant Count, you need to be receiving benefit payments primarily because you’re unemployed. This typically means that you’re claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA).


People qualify for JSA in two ways:


Contribution-based JSA: If you’ve made sufficient National Insurance (NI) contributions in the previous two years, you can claim this benefit for a period of six months. The payment isn’t means tested, which means that your claim doesn’t depend on your income or wealth.


Income-based JSA: This benefit is means tested – if you have more than a certain amount of savings or your partner has a job, you may not be eligible.

Some people are counted in the Claimant Count but aren’t receiving JSA: people who are unemployed and looking for work but not eligible for either type of JSA. Instead they claim NI credits (that is, national insurance payments are made on their behalf) so they don’t lose their eligibility for a state pension.

But times they are a-changin’. The UK government is in the process of rolling together a number of benefits into a single payment called

Universal Credit, which includes income-based JSA. So far only people living in certain areas have been switched to Universal Credit, but the intention – as its name suggests – is for it to be universal!

Regardless of the change, the principle remains that the Claimant Count counts the number of people claiming benefits primarily because they’re unemployed. Thus the calculation of the Claimant Count is relatively straightforward: just add up the number of people claiming benefits. To get the unemployment rate according to the Claimant Count, divide by the economically active population (which we define in the preceding section).