Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures about Universal Credit have been jumped on by the corporate media. This is because they are the latest stats on the nationalities of benefit claimants. However, instead of reporting the reality of the situation, right-wing tabloids like the Sun have manipulated the figures to fuel racism and xenophobia on behalf of the Tories and Reform; oh – and Labour as well.

Not that facts matter when you’re on social media – as the Sun’s bullshit spread like wildfire.

DWP new figures on Universal Credit

On 15 July, the DWP published it latest stats on Universal Credit. These showed that the overwhelming majority (83.6%) of Universal Credit claimants were British citizens. However, this didn’t stop the Sun and the Telegraph screaming about the number of “migrants” claiming benefits.

The Sun ran with the headline:

More than 1 MILLION migrants are claiming Universal Credit in Britain – with majority unemployed

While the Telegraph did similar:

More than 1m foreigners claim Universal Credit every month

The Sun claimed that, of the DWP figures:

The number of foreign nationals on Universal Credit has surged from 883,470 in 2022 to 1.26million last month…

The majority of immigrants getting the taxpayer handouts are not in work.

It then went on to quote the actual figures:

Most of the migrants getting Universal Credit are EU nationals, comprising 770,379 of the claims.

Non EU nationals with indefinite leave make up 211,090 of the claims, followed by 118,749 refugees, 54,156 on humanitarian visas, 75,267 on time-limited visas, and 33,240 “others”.

Hold up.

Lie after lie

So, in reality most of the one million “migrants” the Sun mentions are not migrants at all. The key omission? Nearly three-quarters of these claimants are EU citizens who hold settled status or indefinite leave. That means they are legally entitled to public funds. Therefore, they are not “migrants”.

EU citizens who lived in the UK pre-Brexit were granted equal access to welfare—including DWP benefits and the NHS—as part of the Settlement Scheme. That system didn’t create a “new wave” of “migrant” benefit claimants, as the headline falsely implies it did.

Of course, if we want to play ‘divide and conquer’ like the Sun is, then actually the employment rate for EU citizens on Universal Credit is higher than that of British nationals. Also, employment rates for most other nationalities is the same as British nationals, too.

Moreover, note the images the Sun uses in the article: they are all of Black or brown people – when in fact, the majority of foreign nationals claiming Universal Credit are white.

By failing to clarify any of this, the Sun exploits a baseline far-right bias that equates “migrant” with “undeserving,” when in fact these are people whose immigration status explicitly permits them to claim social security.

With regards to the other figures, the Sun rightly says there are 118,749 refugees and 54,156 people on humanitarian visas claiming Universal Credit. But yet again, it misses crucial context which even the DWP has to admit.

It explained that:

“Refugee” has the lowest rate of employment at 22%. Asylum seekers are not permitted to work, so those granted refugee status will not be in work at the point they are granted this status.

That is, refugees by default will not be in work because of the government’s own rules.

Far-right racism via the DWP

When readers are fed repetitive “one million migrants” rhetoric without context, it sells the idea that foreigners are draining taxpayers dry. This lie stokes fear and racism – which is the goal of the far-right Sun and its lackeys like Nigel Farage. In reality, this is simply not true.

Of course, none of this matters to the toxic, far-right Sun. It has irresponsibly spun the DWP figures to sow racist division – with a deliberate omission: the overwhelming majority of these ‘migrants’ are not migrants at all, but legal, settled residents or refugees.

That’s not just poor journalism—it’s far-right political messaging dressed up as news.

Featured image via the Canary

By Steve Topple

This post was originally published on Canary.