Chichester Claimant Count Rises to 2,365, Under-25s Up 17%

Chichester district’s claimant count rose to 2,365 in August 2026, up 95 on the same month last year. Fifty-five of those 95 are people aged 16 to 24.

That is the finding underneath a headline number that looks quiet. The district’s overall rate is 3.2 per cent of working-age residents, up from 3.1 a year ago and still well below England’s 4.0 per cent. The age breakdown underneath it is not quiet at all.

Year on year, across the district:

• 16 to 24: up from 325 to 380, a rise of 55, or 16.9 per cent
• 25 to 49: up from 1,290 to 1,300, a rise of 10, or 0.8 per cent
• 50 and over: up from 655 to 685, a rise of 30, or 4.6 per cent

Under-25s are about one in six of the district’s claimants. They account for well over half of the year’s increase. Across England the under-25 count rose 9.4 per cent over the same twelve months, from 272,080 to 297,675, so Chichester’s rise is close to double the national one.

The figures are the ONS and DWP claimant count, published through nomis. The August 2026 data was released at 7am on 15 September 2026. The next release is due in October.

August normally does nothing here. This year it did not

Month to month, the district’s count went from 2,290 in July to 2,365 in August, a rise of 75.

That is out of pattern. In each of the previous six years the July-to-August move in Chichester was small, and in four of those six the count fell:

Within that 75, the 16 to 24 band rose by 30 and the 50 and over band by 40, while 25 to 49 moved by 10. The claimant count is not seasonally adjusted at local authority level, so a single month is not a trend. But a +75 August is a bigger step than this district has taken between those two months at any point since 2020.

Where Chichester sits among the seven West Sussex districts

Chichester has the fourth highest claimant rate of the seven West Sussex districts, and the fifth largest year-on-year rise. Neither end of the county looks like the other.

West Sussex as a whole holds 16,795 claimants, a rate of 3.1 per cent, up 5.3 per cent on the year. England’s count rose 1.8 per cent over the same period. So the county is rising roughly three times faster than the country, and Chichester is rising faster than the country but slower than the county.

Mid Sussex is the outlier. It has the second lowest rate in West Sussex and by far the steepest increase, 11.3 per cent in a year. Horsham, next door, rose 2.0 per cent.

The under-25 rise is county-wide, and steeper than England’s everywhere

Every West Sussex district saw its 16 to 24 claimant count rise faster than its own overall count, and all seven rose faster than England did, although Arun only just.

One caution on the chart. Nomis rounds local authority figures to the nearest five, so a district working from a base of a few hundred can move a percentage point either way on rounding alone. The direction is solid in all seven districts; the exact ordering of the middle of the table is not worth arguing over.

What the claimant count actually counts

This number is misread constantly, so it is worth being precise about it.

The ONS is blunt in its own quality and methodology information: the claimant count “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”.

What it does measure is “the number of people claiming benefits principally for the reason of being unemployed, based on administrative data from the benefits system”. Since Universal Credit, that is a composite of Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants and Universal Credit claimants “who are required to seek work in order to remain eligible for benefits”.

Two consequences follow:

• Someone working part time on low earnings can be in this count if their claimant commitment still requires them to look for more work. It is not a count of the jobless.
• Changes to who has to seek work change the number without anything changing in the local economy. That is why the count is best read as a trend and a comparison rather than a headcount of people out of work.

What it means for you

If you are 16 to 24 and out of work in this district, the figures say you are not an outlier. At 380, under-25 claims here are at their highest August level since 2020. They have been above the same month a year earlier in ten of the last twelve months, and exactly level in the other two.

The district’s free Energy Advice Service was two weeks from closing, and has just been kept open for another year. Funding for the service, which Arun and Chichester Citizens Advice runs, was due to stop at the end of September 2026. Chichester District Council’s Cabinet resolved on 1 September to put £20,000 from general fund reserves into extending it for a year. The decision took effect on 10 September.

The council’s own report to that meeting sets out what the service has done since it started in September 2023:

• over 4,700 clients supported
• over £500,000 in financial outcomes, counting energy savings, grant applications and income maximisation
• over 500 clients given emergency food or fuel vouchers
• over 1,000 clients supported through the Household Support Fund
• around 400 clients helped with debt, benefit or budgeting advice

The report says the most common reason people contact the service is energy, then urgent support, then benefits.

If you are renewing an on-street parking permit, separately, West Sussex raises its permit prices on 1 October and has not yet published the new ones. Details are on our roadworks and travel page.

For the ward-level picture, which splits far wider than the district average, see our July breakdown of all 21 Chichester wards. Chichester Central was on 6.0 per cent and Loxwood on 1.3 per cent.

More Chichester information: house prices, council tax bands, planning news and bin collection days.