The district count rose to 2,235 in August, the most since October 2024. Everyone added over the year is under 25 or over 50, and the 25 to 49 group fell.
The number of people in the St Albans district claiming benefits principally because they are out of work reached 2,235 in August 2026. That is the highest monthly figure since October 2024, on a series that runs back to February 2020.
The figures come from the ONS claimant count published through nomis, released on 15 September 2026. The district rate held at 2.4% of residents aged 16 to 64, which is still among the lowest in Hertfordshire.
The total is up 75 on August 2025, a rise of 3.5%. That sounds small. Split it by age and it is not small at all.
Everyone added in a year is at one end or the other
Over the twelve months to August 2026 the two outer age groups grew and the middle one shrank.
| Age | August 2025 | August 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 to 24 | 345 | 395 | +50 |
| 25 to 49 | 1,290 | 1,245 | -45 |
| 50 and over | 525 | 595 | +70 |
| All ages | 2,160 | 2,235 | +75 |
The two ends added 120 claimants between them. The 25 to 49 group gave 45 back. The headline rise of 75 is what is left over.
Both of those outer figures are at levels the district has not seen for years:
- 395 claimants aged 16 to 24 is the highest since September 2021
- 595 claimants aged 50 and over is the highest since November 2024
- 1,245 claimants aged 25 to 49 makes that the only band lower than a year ago
St Albans is still near the bottom of the county table
Only one Hertfordshire district has a lower claimant rate than St Albans. East Hertfordshire is on 2.0%. North Hertfordshire is level with St Albans on 2.4%.
| District | Claimants | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| East Hertfordshire | 1,965 | 2.0% |
| North Hertfordshire | 1,990 | 2.4% |
| St Albans | 2,235 | 2.4% |
| Three Rivers | 1,615 | 2.7% |
| Dacorum | 3,190 | 3.2% |
| Welwyn Hatfield | 2,530 | 3.2% |
| Broxbourne | 2,135 | 3.3% |
| Hertsmere | 2,465 | 3.6% |
| Stevenage | 2,125 | 3.6% |
| Watford | 3,235 | 4.6% |
The rate and the count pull in different directions, because the district is large. St Albans has the fifth highest number of claimants in Hertfordshire and the joint second lowest rate.
The young claimant rise is a county-wide pattern, not a St Albans one. Every one of the ten Hertfordshire districts recorded more claimants aged 16 to 24 in August 2026 than in August 2025. Stevenage rose the most, from 395 to 500. St Albans rose from 345 to 395, the second largest increase in the county in absolute terms, level with Hertsmere.
Last month’s figure has already changed
We reported the July 2026 total as 2,225 on 24 August. The same table now records July as 2,195, a reduction of 30. The under-25 figure for July has moved from 395 to 385 in the same way.
That is a revision, not an error in the earlier release. The ONS Claimant Count QMI explains why: “The JSA element of the Claimant Count is based on the information as it exists in an extract produced from the administrative system three weeks after the count date for the latest month. No subsequent revisions are made to the non-seasonally adjusted JSA figures after that date. The UC element of the Claimant Count allows for revisions to the data for one previous month.”
So the newest month in any release is the one most likely to move, and it moves once. The August figure of 2,235 may itself be revised when the September figures are published next month.
What the count is, and what it is not
This is not the unemployment rate, and the ONS says so plainly. The same methodology note describes the claimant count as “a measure of the number of people claiming benefits principally for the reason of being unemployed, based on administrative data from the benefits system”, and states that it “does not attempt to measure unemployment, which is a concept defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as all those who are out of work, actively seeking work and available to start work.”
Two practical consequences for reading the St Albans number:
- it includes people who are in work but on low earnings and required under Universal Credit to look for more, so it is not a count of people with no job at all
- it counts claims, so a change in how a benefit is administered can move it without anything changing in the local labour market
Counts are rounded by the ONS to the nearest five.
What it means for you
If you are claiming, or about to, the age split is the useful part. The pressure in this district is on people at the start of their working lives and on people in their fifties and sixties, not on the middle of the age range where the numbers have actually improved.
Hertfordshire County Council publishes money and benefits advice, and the county’s Services for Young People offer careers guidance to 13 to 19 year olds, and to 25 year olds with special educational needs or disabilities. St Albans City and District Council publishes its own cost of living support page, covering council tax support, housing benefit and the household support fund.
If you are working out what a change in income means for your bills, our guides to St Albans council tax bands and parking in St Albans set out the local costs, and St Albans house prices tracks what housing costs in the district.
Sources
- ONS claimant count, via nomis, dataset NM_162_1, released 15 September 2026, for every count and rate in this article: the St Albans district totals from February 2020 to August 2026, the age breakdown, and the ten Hertfordshire districts.
- ONS Claimant Count Quality and Methodology Information for the definition, the statement that the count does not measure ILO unemployment, and the revisions rule quoted above.
- Our own St Albans claimant count report for July 2026, published 24 August 2026, for the 2,225 figure that has since been revised.
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