September 2026 CPI is 3.5%: what it means for Universal Credit

3.5%. The Consumer Prices Index rose by 3.5% in the 12 months to September 2026, up from 3.1% in August, according to the Office for National Statistics release at 7am on Wednesday 21 October 2026. On a monthly basis prices rose 0.4% in September. CPIH, which adds owner occupiers' housing costs, was 3.6%, and core CPI, which leaves out energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, was 2.8%. September matters more than any other month for benefits, because both the law and the government's annual review use the September figure to set the rates that start the following April. The index itself stood at 144.1 in September 2026, against 139.3 a year earlier. On those rounded values the rise works out at 3.45%. The headline 3.5% is calculated from the unrounded index, and it is the published rate the figures on this page use.

Because two parts of Universal Credit are now tied to it by law. The Universal Credit Act 2025 sets a minimum standard allowance for every year from 2026/27 to 2029/30: the 2025/26 amount, increased by each September's CPI, then by a fixed uplift. For 2027/28 that uplift is 3.1%, but it replaces the 2.3% already paid rather than adding to it, so the real rise above CPI is about 0.78% for three of the four rates. Section 4 of the same Act adds a second test, for the protected health element. Everything else, including the child element, the carer element, the childcare caps and the work allowances, is reviewed each year, and any increase is the government's decision rather than a legal duty. How the formula works, and why the real rise is not 3.1%, is explained in is Universal Credit going up.

At least £443.21 a month for a single person aged 25 or over, up 4.31% from £424.90. A couple where one is 25 or over gets at least £695.71, up from £666.97, and a couple both under 25 at least £551.11, up from £528.34. The Act's formula for a single person aged 25 or over is £400.14 × 1.038 × 1.035 × 1.031: the 2025/26 rate, then September 2025 CPI, then September 2026 CPI, then the 2027/28 uplift. That is rounded up to the penny, because the duty is "at least". A single person under 25 gets at least £351.10, up 3.7% from £338.58. That rise is smaller because DWP set the under-25 rate above its minimum in 2026/27, and the floor follows the formula, not the rate paid. DWP can pay more than any of these, and the health element test below makes a higher under-25 rate likely. To see what today's rates mean for your household, use the Universal Credit Calculator.

The lower rate will not: the £217.26 paid on most new claims since 6 April 2026 is frozen until 2029/30. The protected £429.80 rate is frozen too, but section 4 of the Act requires each total of the protected rate and a standard allowance to rise by at least CPI. At 3.5%, the standard allowance floors alone do not get there. The four totals fall between £9.65 and £14.38 a month short, and the largest gap is for a single person under 25. DWP must close it by raising the protected rate, the standard allowances, or both. Raising only the protected rate would take it to at least £444.18. In 2026/27 DWP raised the protected rate just enough for a single person aged 25 or over and set the under-25 standard allowance above its minimum to cover the rest. Done the same way again, that gives a protected rate of £441.41 and an under-25 rate of £353.87. That method reproduces both 2026/27 figures to the penny, but it is our arithmetic, not an announcement.

Not automatically. The child element, the disabled child additions, the carer element, the childcare caps, the work allowances and the housing cost contribution are reviewed every year, but for Universal Credit an increase is the government's decision. In April 2026 every one of them rose by the September 2025 figure of 3.8%. If the same happens again, 3.5% would take the child element from £303.94 to £314.58 a month per child and the carer element from £209.34 to £216.67, rounded to the penny as in 2026. Those are what a CPI rise would give, not announced rates. Local Housing Allowance and the benefit cap are separate decisions and are not tied to CPI: LHA has been frozen since April 2024, and the cap was last raised in April 2023.

The Budget is on Wednesday 28 October 2026. Last year DWP's uprating statement came on Budget day and its rates table the day after, so the confirmed 2027/28 rates, including the decisions on Local Housing Allowance and the benefit cap, are expected then or during November. The regulations setting the standard allowance and the protected health element are expected in February 2027, and the Up-rating Order for the other amounts in early March. The new standard allowance applies from your first assessment period beginning on or after Monday 12 April 2027, so the first higher payment arrives between mid-May and mid-June 2027. You do not need to do anything to get it. The Payment Dates Calculator works out your own dates.