Consultation outcome

DWP statistics publication frequency: statistical notice

Published 19 December 2019

This review is now closed and we are analysing your feedback. Findings will be published soon and these will outline any changes to the frequency of these statistics.

Background

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics team are reviewing the frequency of their publications with a view to reduce the number of releases each year. This will enable them to direct efforts into development of the statistics and the expansion of the scope and content of the publications.

For each release we are reviewing we have made a proposal for reducing the current frequency but we are interested in alternative proposals.

If frequency is reduced, the same data would still be available. This means if we move from a quarterly to a 6-monthly publication the quarterly data would still be available but would only be released every 6 months.

DWP are reviewing the following statistics:

• Benefit Cap Official Statistics
• Benefit Combinations Experimental Statistics
• Housing Benefit Debt Recovery National Statistics
• Housing Benefit Speed of Processing Official Statistics

There are some publications that are not in the scope of the current review because:

• they have either been recently reviewed, such as the quarterly benefit statistics release, covering legacy benefits
• there are known user needs that require the current frequency, for example, the new Alternative Claimant Count and the statistics on Sanctions

Proposals for publication frequency

The scope of the current review includes the following publications. Each of the proposals will be considered separately and a decision will be made after considering all user feedback.

Benefit Cap Official Statistics

The proposal is to move from quarterly to 6-monthly publication.

The Benefit Cap publication provides statistics on the number of benefit units (referred to within the publication as ‘households’) who have had Housing Benefit (HB) or Universal Credit (UC) capped, either in a particular month (point in time caseload) or overall (cumulative caseload).

Households may have their HB or UC capped if they receive benefits which would total more than the benefit cap limit. The limit varies according to whether households are in London, and have dependents. Statistics on the capping of UC are currently experimental. The publication is currently produced quarterly and also contains statistics on the amount of HB or UC that households have capped, and the number of households which move off the cap (off-flow).

Benefit Combinations Experimental Statistics

The proposal is to move from quarterly to 6-monthly or annual publication.

The Benefit Combinations statistics form part of the DWP benefits statistical summary release, and show the number of people claiming at least one benefit, and the most common benefit combinations. The statistics are constructed by linking different benefit datasets together at the individual or household level.

The aim of the statistics is to show how many people and households claim DWP benefits, and to provide meaningful breakdowns of their characteristics. Data is published on Stat Xplore quarterly and is subject to a 6 month lag.

Benefit Combinations includes published data on the following benefits:

• Attendance Allowance (AA)
• Bereavement Benefit (BB)
• Carer’s Allowance (CA)
• Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
• Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Housing Benefit (HB)
• Incapacity Benefit (IB)
• Income Support (IS)
• 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)

Please note, the wider DWP benefits statistical summary release will continue to provide a refresh for National Statistics for individual benefits on a quarterly basis, and Experimental Universal Credit statistics will continue to be published monthly.

It is only the “Benefit Combination” statistics that are in scope under this proposal.

Housing Benefit Debt Recovery National Statistics

The proposal is to move from 6-monthly to annual publication.

Housing Benefit Debt Recovery (HBDR) is a bi-annual statistical publication capturing information on the amount of HB that is overpaid to claimants, as well as the subsequent recoveries and amounts written off. The September publication is based on provisional data from quarters 1 and 2, while the March publication is based on final data from the full year. This means that statistics from quarter 1 and quarter 2 may be revised if quality assurance has identified that any local authorities (LAs) need to resubmit their data.

Data is submitted quarterly by LAs, who record both rent rebate and rent allowance data on the following measures for debt:

• outstanding at the start of the quarter
• identified during the quarter
• recovered during the quarter
• written off during the quarter

Housing Benefit Speed of Processing Official Statistics

The proposal is to move from quarterly to 6-monthly or annual publication.

HB Speed of Processing refers to how long it takes for local authorities to process a new HB claim, or a change of circumstances for a current claim. This publication is currently released quarterly and contains information on the average number of days that are taken to process new claims or change of circumstances for each month in the quarter. Data is released by local authority or region.