National statistics

Benefit Combination to August 2021 (Experimental Statistics)

Updated 25 February 2022

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statistics-february-2022/benefit-combination-to-august-2021-experimental-statistics

A person in Great Britain may be eligible to claim several benefits, administered by or on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions, at the same time. The Benefit Combination statistics offer a picture of the number of individuals claiming at least one benefit as well as the number of claimants for each combination of benefits, as at the end of each quarter, for the period February 2013 – August 2021. For detailed commentary on individual benefits see the DWP benefits statistics release.

The Benefit Combination statistics cover:

  • Attendance Allowance (AA)
  • Bereavement Benefit (BB)
  • Bereavement Support Payment (BSP)
  • Carer’s Allowance (CA)
  • Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for both adults and children
  • Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
  • Housing Benefit (HB)
  • Incapacity Benefit (IB)
  • Income Support (IS)
  • Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB)
  • Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
  • Pension Credit (PC)
  • Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
  • Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA)
  • State Pension (SP)
  • Universal Credit (UC)
  • Widow’s Benefit (WB)

Within the statistics, certain benefits are grouped together, where more than one benefit could be claimed to meet a particular need. The groupings used are:

  • INCAP, which comprises ESA, IB and SDA (and IS where IB is claimed at the same time), to help with living costs if a claimant is unable to work due to a disability or health condition
  • PIP/DLA (and AA for those over State Pension Age) for help with some of the extra costs caused by long-term disability, ill-health or terminal ill-health

Please note that for consistency, all of the figures in the Benefit Combinations release are aligned to a common time point: August 2021. More up-to-date figures have been published for:

1. Total benefit claimants

22.7 million people claimed some combination of DWP benefits in August 2021 (of the 17 benefits included in these statistics). Of these:

  • 12.6 million were of State Pension Age (including those in receipt of their State Pension), 29% of whom were claiming more than one benefit
  • 9.5 million were of Working Age, 32% of whom were claiming more than one benefit
  • 570,000 were under the age of 16 (and in receipt of Disability Living Allowance as a child)

The total number of benefit claimants remained relatively stable between February 2013 and February 2020, between 20 and 21 million, but rose by 2.1 million (10%) by May 2020 and peaked at 23 million in February 2021 (340,000 (2%) more than in May 2020) due to the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The total number of benefit claimants then began gradually decreasing, with 300,000 (1%) fewer claimants by August 2021 compared with the February 2021 peak.

2. Working Age combinations

DWP Benefit Combinations, Working Age, August 2021

Note: This illustration uses overlapping circles, where larger circles and overlaps show more people claiming a particular combination of benefits. It is included to demonstrate the complexity of the situation for many claimants. Only the most common combinations are shown and other combinations do occur. It is not always possible for the areas to be exactly proportional to the number of cases for each combination.

Source: Benefit Combination Statistics to August 2021, Stat-Xplore

The most common benefit or combination of benefits claimed by Working Age (WA) individuals is Universal Credit (UC) on its own. Of all WA claimants in August 2021:

  • 49% claimed UC and no other benefit

  • 12% claimed UC in combination with some other benefit(s)

  • 6% claimed PIP or DLA (for help with some of the extra costs caused by long-term disability, ill-health or terminal ill-health) and no other benefit

  • 21% claimed PIP or DLA in combination with some other benefit(s)

  • 3% claimed Carer’s Allowance and no other benefit
  • 7% claimed Carer’s Allowance in combination with some other benefit(s)

The combinations of benefit that people claim are varied. Nearly one in five WA claimants (18% in August 2021) claim some combination other than the top 10 most common possibilities. This can include benefits that appear in the top ten, but in combination with other benefits at the same time. For example, somebody claiming INCAP on its own is part of the 11th most common combination (2% of all WA claimants in August 2021).

Top 10 Working Age benefit combinations, August 2021

Benefits Claimed Thousands Percentage
UC In Work only 2,071 22%
UC Out of Work only 2,017 21%
INCAP, PIP/DLA and Housing Benefit 682 7%
UC No Work Requirements only 588 6%
PIP/DLA only 554 6%
INCAP and PIP/DLA 508 5%
Housing Benefit only 468 5%
Carer’s Allowance only 328 3%
UC No Work Requirements and PIP/DLA 312 3%
UC No Work Requirements and Carer’s Allowance 245 3%
Any other combination 1,749 18%

Source: Benefit Combination Statistics to August 2021, Stat-Xplore

Further combinations of benefits, and breakdowns by age, gender, geography, and individual benefits are available from Stat-Xplore.

Working Age DWP Benefit Claimants, February 2013 to August 2021

Source: Benefit Combination Statistics to August 2021, Stat-Xplore

Since the introduction of Universal Credit in 2013 the picture of who claims which combination of benefits has been gradually changing, with more people claiming UC and fewer people claiming other benefits. In particular, there have been reductions in the numbers claiming JSA and the other “Out of Work” benefits which comprise ESA, IB, SDA, IS (where CA not also in payment) or PC (where CA not also in payment), as well as reductions in HB.

The economic disruption caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused UC claims to double, with 2.9 million claiming UC in Feb 2020, and 5.9 million in Feb 2021. This then decreased to 5.7 million in August 2021. Meanwhile, JSA claims rose during the early months of the pandemic from 170,000 (Feb 2020) to 340,000 (Aug 2020), but have subsequently reduced to pre-pandemic levels (140,000 in Aug 2021). This should be seen in the context that ‘new style’ JSA can be claimed regardless of savings or partner’s income, but only for up to 182 days. The remainder of the WA benefit claiming population reduced by 16% from 4.4 million (February 2020) to 3.7 million (August 2021), in part because some people not claiming UC in February 2020 have started new UC claims by August 2021.

3. State Pension Age combinations

DWP Benefit Combinations, State Pension Age, August 2021

Note: This illustration uses overlapping circles, where larger circles and overlaps show more people claiming a particular combination of benefits. It is included to demonstrate the complexity of the situation for many claimants. Only the most common combinations are shown and other combinations do occur. It is not always possible for the areas to be exactly proportional to the number of cases for each combination.

Source: Benefit Combination Statistics to August 2021, Stat-Xplore

The most common benefit or combination of benefits claimed by State Pension Age (SPA) individuals is State Pension (SP) on its own. Of all SPA claimants in August 2021:

  • 70% claimed their State Pension and no other benefit

  • 28% claimed their State Pension in combination with some other benefit(s)

  • 11% claimed AA, PIP or DLA (for help with some of the extra costs caused by long-term disability, ill-health or terminal ill-health) and their State Pension but no other benefit

  • 9% claimed AA, PIP or DLA in combination with some other benefit(s)

  • 7% claimed Pension Credit and/or Housing Benefit as well as their State Pension, but no other benefit
  • 9% claimed Pension Credit and/or Housing Benefit in combination with some other benefit(s)

Top 10 State Pension Age benefit combinations, August 2021

Benefits Claimed Thousands Percentage
State Pension (SP) only 8,875 70%
AA/PIP/DLA & SP 1,377 11%
AA/PIP/DLA, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit & SP 377 3%
Pension Credit, Housing Benefit & SP 331 3%
Pension Credit, AA/PIP/DLA & SP 314 2%
Pension Credit & SP 310 2%
Housing Benefit & SP 247 2%
AA/PIP/DLA, Housing Benefit & SP 147 1%
Carer’s Allowance & SP 118 1%
IIDB & SP 71 1%
Any other combination 448 4%

Source: Benefit Combination Statistics to August 2021, Stat-Xplore

Since 2013, the trends in benefit claims amongst those of State Pension age have remained relatively stable, aside from a gradual reduction in Pension Credit claims (due to the introduction of the New State Pension in April 2016, among other factors). Whilst the retirement age has risen (a gradual increase for women from 60 in April 2010 to 65 in November 2018, and for both men and women to 66 by October 2020) the GB population has also aged.

Further explanation and commentary on the statistics for State Pension and Pension Credit can be found in the benefits statistics summary release.

4. About these statistics

Changes to this release

From February 2022, Bereavement Support Payment (BSP) was added to the Benefit Combinations statistics for the first time. It has been included in every quarter’s data since BSP was first introduced in April 2017.

Other changes include:

  • Modifying the cleaning rules to no longer remove Pension Credit (PC) claimants from the caseloads of UC, IS, JSA, ESA, IB or SDA caseloads
  • Updating the combined Widow’s Benefit (WB) & Bereavement Benefit (BB) to also include BSP
  • Splitting the data on Stat Xplore to pre 2019 and 2019 onwards

Methodology

There are methodological differences between individual benefit series and the combined benefit series, which in some cases give rise to differences in the figures themselves. Further information on methodology, and detail on uses and limitations of the series can be found in the background methodology note. For official statistics on each individual benefit please see the DWP benefits statistics collection.

Data Quality Statement

The Benefit Combinations statistics are badged as experimental to reflect the fact that methodologies and definitions for the statistics are under development.

Known issues

  1. During 2019, a new DWP computer system called “Get Your State Pension” (GYSP) came online to handle new State Pension claims. It is not yet possible to include the full GYSP data within published figures, but the number of cases on the new system is now too high to continue to publish State Pension data without including them. The Benefit Combinations State Pension caseload from February 2021 therefore includes an estimate of GYSP cases created using payment data, in line with the published State Pension figures (for this quarter, please note that these are being released as data tables and will not be released on Stat-Xplore).

  2. Since October 2020, Hackney Borough Council has not been able to supply any Housing Benefit (HB) data to DWP. The published HB figures have therefore modified their methodology by using the last complete data return from Hackney (October 2020) as an approximation and then using other trusted data sources (such as removing cases where the claimant is claiming the housing element of Universal Credit or has died) to amend or “clean” Hackney’s data. These modified HB data have been used for Benefit Combinations to ensure continuity.

  3. The source IIDB data used for Benefit Combination statistics shows IIDB claimants at a point five months previous to the last day of the Benefit Combinations calendar month. To adjust for this lag, data from the Customer Information System (CIS) has been used to remove cases for individuals known to have died between the IIDB time point and the Benefit Combinations time point, giving an estimate of the IIDB caseload at the Benefit Combinations time point.

The background methodology note gives detail and impact for each of these changes.

Benefits not included in this Benefit Combinations release

Maternity Allowance is not currently included in the series.

Current Benefit Combinations statistics do not include the HMRC administered benefits Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit and Child Benefit. Since the introduction of Universal Credit in 2013, most Tax Credits are being gradually replaced by Universal Credit and so individuals who would formerly have claimed tax credits and not appeared in these statistics are now more likely to appear as Universal Credit claimants.

DWP and HMRC analysts are working towards a joint annual publication of benefit combination statistics that would include Tax Credits and Child Benefit, and this is intended to be published at some point in the future.

Benefits in Scotland

The Scotland Act 2016 gives Scottish Parliament powers over a number of social security benefits which had been administered to Scottish clients by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Carer’s Allowance became the first benefit for which executive competence transferred to the Scottish Government in 2018. DWP is administering Carer’s Allowance on behalf of Scottish Ministers, through an agency arrangement, on an interim basis, until the introduction of Carer’s Assistance, which will replace it. However, Social Security Scotland is delivering Carer’s Allowance Supplement for which recipients of Carer’s Allowance who are resident in Scotland are eligible. Benefit Combination statistics in this release do not include data on Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

On 1 April 2020, executive competence was transferred to the Scottish Government for

  • Disability Living Allowance
  • Personal Independence Payments
  • Attendance Allowance
  • Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
  • Severe Disablement Allowance

At this time the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People announced that the introduction of the new Scottish disability and carer benefits would be paused given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Until these benefits are introduced, and while Social Security Scotland continues to build its capacity to deliver them, DWP Ministers have agreed that the DWP will continue delivering the existing benefits on behalf of the Scottish Government under Agency Agreements as they are delivered in England and Wales.

Where to find out more

Read a background methodology note for more detail on derivation of Benefit Combination statistics.

Build your own data tables using Stat-Xplore.

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