Parliamentary reporter @TrinderMatt

YOUNG people have led a “staggering” surge in new benefit claims during the Covid-19 pandemic, a devastating new study revealed today.

Analysis of official figures by the Resolution Foundation found that the increase had contributed to a partial reversal in the decades-long decline in new applications. 

Nearly two-thirds of the population (64 per cent) are now living in a household receiving state support, up two percentage points from the pre-pandemic total in February 2020. 

This represents a substantial rise of 1.4 million to a total of 7.5m by the same month this year, the think tank’s report, Age-Old or New Age, found.

Conversely, 72 per cent were receiving benefits in 2005, showing the number of new claimants beginning to rise.  

The proportion of adults aged 16 to 24 on state support increased by two-thirds from 9 to 15 per cent between February 2020 and this year, according to the research, which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation. 

The share of 25 to 29-year-olds receiving payments rose from 17 to 24 per cent, and just over a quarter (27 per cent) of the 30 to 59 age group were also on benefits by February, up five percentage points, the report said. 

Resolution Foundation senior economist Karl Handscomb said: “The pandemic benefit surge has been driven by young people – a group who have traditionally been the least likely to claim benefits – and reflects the fact that they have been by far the hardest hit by the Covid economic crisis.”

The data also demonstrated a “potentially worrying” rise in the number of older people claiming universal credit (UC), with 34,000 more over-fifties on the benefit.

As a result, the Tory government’s decision to remove the temporary £20 a week uplift to UC from October would have a “bigger impact on family living standards across the country than ever before,” the think tank warned.

A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesperson claimed the government’s “unprecedented measures had supported the nation through the economic shock” of the pandemic. 

“[UC] will continue to provide a vital safety net and, with record vacancies available, it’s right that we now focus on our Plan for Jobs, to support people in the long term.”