February 2025

Key Findings:

  • Claimant Count (people seeking work): There were 11,690 unemployed claimants of Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) and Universal Credit (UC – searching for work conditionality) in January 2025 (3.7% of working age people).
  • Unemployed UC/JSA claimant numbers increased by 6.7% (735 claimants) in the year from January 2024, and rose by 2.2% (255 claimants) in the month to January 2025. The claimant rate in East Sussex (3.7%) remains lower than national figure of 4.3%.
  • Universal Credit (people on low incomes):  There were 56,044 people claiming any UC in January 2025 (17.2% of people aged 16-65), of whom 44,900 are not included in the Claimant Count above (i.e. not ‘Searching for work’ conditionality).
  • This number has increased by 15.5% since January 2024, but this is lower than the national annual rise of 17.3%.

In East Sussex, overall unemployed claimant numbers have risen by 6.7% over the past year, from 10,955 in January 2024 to 11,690 in January 2025.  This compares to England, where the annual increase in claimant numbers was 12.2%.

There were 3.7% of working age people in East Sussex claiming UC/JSA in January 2025, lower than England rate (4.3%), but higher than the South East region (3.2%).

Claimant rates, England, South East, East Sussex and districts, October 2023 and 2024

Bar chart showing Claimant rates for England, South East, East Sussex and districts, for January 2024 and January 2025. Claimant rates have increased in all areas, and nationally and regionally in the year to January 2025. Wealden continues to have the lowest claimant rate while Hastings and Eastbourne both remain significantly higher than the national average. However, the rate in Hastings has declined over the last year.

Youth unemployment is rising

  • Youth unemployment has seen a small increase in the year to January 2025 with the number of UC/JSA claimants aged 18-24 in East Sussex rising from 2,040 in January 2024 to 2,105 in January 2025, an increase of 3.2%. This is significantly lower than the national rise of 8.9% among young claimants over the same period.
  • 6.0% of people aged 18-24 in East Sussex are now claiming UC/JSA (January 2025), with numbers up by 3.4% (70 claimants) in the month since December 2024. The number of young male claimants by rose by 1.6% in the year to January 2025, but young female claimants increased by 5.7% over the year. But the claimant rate among young men at 7.2% is still considerably higher than young females (5.2%).
  • The highest levels of youth claiming are seen in Hastings, where 9.9% of young people are claiming UC/JSA, including 12.4% of young males in January 2025.

Claimant rates by age group, East Sussex January 2022-25

Line chart showing claimant rates for all working age (light blue line) and broad age groups (18-24 – dark green, 25-49 – lime green and 50-64 – dark blue) and how they have changed over three years January 2022 – January 2025 in East Sussex. It shows how rates for all age groups dropped early in 2022, most noticeably in the 18-24 group. But while rates fell in the older age groups over the period from mid-2022 to mid-2023, the claimant rate among young people increased over that time. Since then there has been more variability in claimant rates with the youngest group seeing a sustained increase in rates since September 2024.

Number of unemployed claimants of UC/JSA

January 2024 January 2025 Actual change Annual % change
Eastbourne 2,690 2,815 125 4.6%
Hastings 3,040 2,985 -55 -1.8%
Lewes 1,720 2,025 305 17.7%
Rother 1,580 1,690 110 7.0%
Wealden 1,925 2,185 260 13.5%
East Sussex 10,955 11,690 735 6.7%
South East 166,975 183,990 17,015 10.2%
England 1,350,895 1,515,945 165,050 12.2%

Percentage of working age people claiming UC/JSA because of unemployment

January 2023 January 2024 January 2025
Eastbourne 4.5% 4.5% 4.7%
Hastings 5.5% 5.4% 5.3%
Lewes 3.2% 3.0% 3.6%
Rother 3.5% 3.2% 3.4%
Wealden 2.1% 2.1% 2.4%
East Sussex 3.6% 3.5% 3.7%
South East 2.8% 2.9% 3.2%
England 3.6% 3.8% 4.3%

Claimant rate by ward in January 2025

Map showing JSA/UC Claimant rate in East Sussex wards in January 2025. The map shows the areas with the highest rates as dark green, with all areas above the national average (4.3%) showing as dark or mid green. The areas with the highest claimant rates are mostly located in the southern coastal areas of the county, except for Hailsham East.

Wards

  • In January 2025, 22 East Sussex wards had rates above or equal to the England average (4.3%), with the highest rates in Devonshire (8.9%) in Eastbourne, and Central St Leonards (8.1%), Castle (7.9%) and Gensing (7.6%) in Hastings.
  • This includes 9 wards in Hastings, 5 in Eastbourne, 4 in Lewes, 3 in Rother and 1 in Wealden
  • 47 wards saw an increase in claimant numbers in the month to January 2025, while 17 wards saw a decline.

Claimant rate at ward level in ESiF Data explorer

Districts

  • Claimant counts rose in all districts in the month to January 2025, Increasing by 90 in Rother, 70 in Wealden, and 55 in Hastings, with smaller rises in Lewes (up 30) and Eastbourne (15).
  • Most East Sussex districts also saw claimant numbers increase over the year. The largest percentage increase in claimants since January 2024 was seen in Lewes (up by 305 claimants or 17.7%), but Wealden also saw a significant rise (260 more claimants, up 13.5%).  However, in Hastings claimant numbers saw a slight decline over the year, of 55 claimants (down 1.8%). This compares to a rise in England of 12.2% and in the South East region of 10.2%.
  • In January 2025 Hastings had the highest claimant rate in the county with 5.3% of working age people claiming UC/JSA because of unemployment. The rate in Eastbourne was also above the national average at 4.7% of the working age population, compared to 4.3% nationally.
  • Hastings now has the third highest claimant rate in the South East region, behind Slough (6.4%) and Thanet (5.6%).  Eastbourne has the fifth highest claimant rate in the region.

Universal Credit Claimants

In East Sussex in January 2025 there were 56,044 people claiming UC (17.2% of working age people).  This was an increase of 808 since December 2024 (up 1.5%) and up 7,506  (15.5%) since January 2024. In December 2024, 36.3% of all UC claimants were in employment (measured by employment indicator).

One of the reasons that the number of Universal Credit (UC) claimants is rising is because of the migration of claimants of other benefits such as Tax Credits, Employment and Support Allowance and Housing benefit, into the UC regime. This migration is being rolled out more assertively this year.

UC claimant numbers and rates in January 2025

Total claimants in January 2025
% working age in January 2025
Eastbourne 12,975 20.8%
Hastings 14,259 25.0%
Lewes 9,374 15.9%
Rother 8,710 16.9%
Wealden 10,726 11.2%
East Sussex 56,044 17.2%

Change in number of UC claimants

January 2024 – January 2025 December 2024 – January 2025
Eastbourne 1,348 124
Hastings 1,544 237
Lewes 1,689 155
Rother 1,202 145
Wealden 1,716 146
East Sussex 7,506 808

Number of Universal Credit claimants by conditionality time series, January 2022-2025

Line chart showing the number of Universal Credit claimants by conditionality group between January 2022 and January 2025. While there was a sustained decline among the searching for work group (lime green line) until late 2023, these numbers are now higher than those working with no requirements (light blue line). The number of people who are ‘No work requirements’ (because of sickness/disability or caring - dark green line) has continued to increase and is now significantly higher than the numbers in any other conditionality group.

In the year to January 2025 there was an increase among most conditionality groups except those in the ‘Planning for work’ (down 14.1%) and ‘Preparing for work’ (down 1.9%) groups. The conditionality group seeing the largest rise was the ‘No work requirements’ group, with 5,451 more claimants (up 29.5%).  There were also increases in the ‘Working – no requirements’ group (up 10.2% or 996 claimants) and the ‘Working with requirements’ group, with 487 more claimants (up 8.6%).

While the number of male unemployed UC/JSA claimants is higher than the number of female claimants (see dark green: male and dark blue: female lines, labelled ‘Claimant count’, in the chart below), the number of female claimants in all UC conditionality groups (light blue line) is much higher than the number of males (light green line) claiming, with female UC claimant numbers continuing to rise.

Male and female claimants of Universal Credit and UC/JSA unemployed claimant count, January 2020-January 2025, East Sussex

Line chart showing all claimants of Universal Credit (UC) and unemployed claimants of UC and JobSeekers Allowance (JSA), by sex, for the period January 2020 to January 2025. The chart shows that the number of female UC claimants in all conditionality groups has increased over the last 3 years compared to a smaller increase in the number of male claimants. By contrast, numbers of unemployed claimants of both sexes has been fairly stable since July 2022, but rates among males have begun to rise again in the last couple of months.

 

Further information

The Claimant Count measures the number of people who have made claims for benefits for reasons of unemployment.  Most new claimants for benefit receive Universal Credit, but there are some claimants who do not qualify for UC because they have savings of over £16,000, who may be entitled to contributions-based JSA, which is not means-tested.

The main Claimant Count, which includes all JSA claimants and all UC claimants in the ‘searching for work’ conditionality group, gives an up-to-date measure of changes to the number of unemployed claimants. A small number of UC claimants may subsequently be reallocated to other conditionality groups.

To qualify for JSA or UC as a job seeker, claimants must meet certain eligibility criteria which include being available for, and actively seeking, work. Some claimants might do some work (less than 16 hours per week) and still be eligible if their earnings are very low, as long as they continue to meet all the UC work-seeking requirements.  JSA claimants include those claiming only National Insurance credits.

The Claimant rate is defined as the number of claimants resident in an area expressed as a percentage of the working age population, which includes all people aged 16-64.  Rates for other age groups use the population of that age group.  Population figures are derived from the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) mid-year population estimates.

The Claimant Count is often used as an indicative measure of unemployment as it provides frequently updated information for a range of geographies.  Care should be taken not to confuse this with ONS official labour market statistics which use the International Labour Organisation’s definition of the unemployment rate, which includes all those aged 16 plus who are out of work, but actively seeking work, including those claiming no benefits, as a percentage of all Economically Active people aged 16 and over. These are based on the Labour Force Survey and Annual Population Survey, which is less statistically robust at county and district level.

Links to other useful resources

Economy profiles on ESiF

Contact details

For further information about unemployment, benefits, claimants and other labour market data please contact esif@eastsussex.gov.uk.