DWP benefits statistical summaries: policies and statements
Policies and statements for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefits statistical summaries.
- From:
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Published:
- 23 June 2011
- Last updated:
- 15 September 2026 — See all updates
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
Documents
Details
The policies and statements on this page are for the DWP benefits statistical summaries.
We’ve also published:
There is more about our statistics on the Statistics at DWP page.
Updates to this page
- Last updated:
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15 September 2026
Show all updates
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The page 'Background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary' has been updated and renamed 'Background information note: Annual DWP Benefits Statistics Compendium' and the page 'Methodology statement: DWP benefits statistical summary' has been updated and renamed 'Methodology statement: Annual DWP Benefits Statistics Compendium'
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Updated the page Uses and users: DWP benefits statistical summary.
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Updated the Benefit Combination statistics: background information note
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The 'Background information note' has been updated.
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Made updates to page content.
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Updated Housing Benefit caseload and flows statistics: methodology statement doc to clarify responsibility for producing Housing Benefit stats and added entry for Housing Benefit Award.
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The Background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary has been updated.
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Updated section 3 of the 'Background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary'.
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Updated sections 3 and 4 of the 'Background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary'.
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New row of information for December 2024 added to the table in section 8 of the Benefit Combination statistics: background information note. The Background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary has also been updated, as follows: the information about ESA in section 5 (Impacts of coronavirus on benefit statistics(, added a new section 11 (Ethnicity statistics for ESA and JSA), added information about Move to Universal Credit to section 17 (Other Accredited Official Statistics and Official Statistics issued by the DWP).
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Information about the reinstatement of State Pension statistics has been added to section 4 of the 'Background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary'.
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The Background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary has been updated at section 4. State Pension statistics.
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Changes have been made to the 'background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary' - new information has been made to section 4 about State Pension statistics. Minor changes have been made to the Methodology statement: DWP benefits statistical summary. The latest release of statistics has been published today (13 August 2024).
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Updated the second attachment on the page, 'background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary' - new information about Na h-Eileanan Siar council has been added to Section 3. HB data quality. A minor revision has been made to the third attachment on the page, 'methodology statement: DWP benefits statistical summary' - an update has been made to the Overview section about the DWP teams who are responsible for producing the quarterly statistics. The latest release of statistics has been published today (14 May 2024).
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Changes have been made to the following sections of the Benefit Combination statistics background information note: 2.4 PIP/DLA/AA, 2.8.1 UC Health, 2.10 Benefit Combination (Out of Work), 3.4 Methodological differences – UC Health, 3.6 Cleaning, 8. Changes to the series, and Annex A: List and classification of variables. The latest release of statistics has been published today (13 February 2024).
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Changes have been made to the background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary. The latest release of benefit statistics has been published today (14 November 2023).
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Published a revised version of the 'Benefit Combination statistics: background information note'. Section 6 (Status of the statistics) has been updated to reflect that the Benefit Combination statistics are now classed as Official Statistics. Published a revised of the 'Background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary' — section 6 (IIDB data on Stat-Xplore) has been updated. Added notes to the relevant documents that Bereavement Support Payment and Housing Benefit flows statistics are now classed as Official Statistics.
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Revised the Benefit Combination statistics: background information note. Updated section 8 (changes to the series) and Annex A (List and classification of variables) to reflect that Ward level data is now included in the statistics. Minor changes have also been made to the background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary.
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Minor changes have been made to the background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary. This has meant renumbering the sections in the document. Also revised the Benefit Combination statistics: background information note. Added information about Scottish Devolution to sections 1 (Background), 4.1 (Benefit changes in Scotland) and 4.2 (Presentation of Benefit Combinations in Scotland). Added information about Pension Credit to section 2.10 (Benefit Combination (Out of Work)). Added a new entry for February 2023 to the table in section 8 (Changes to the series).
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Updated the second attachment on the page 'background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary'. A new section has been added (section 1), about an error found in IIDB data on Stat-Xplore).
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Updated the second attachment on the page 'background information note: DWP benefits statistical summary'. A new section has been added - section 1 (Maternity Allowance statistics for May 2022). Information has also been added to section 9 (DLA and AA statistics on Stat-Xplore). The latest release of benefit statistics has been published today (15 November 2022).
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Revisions made to 2 attachments. In the background information note for the DWP benefits statistical summary, the following sections have updated: 1. Scottish devolution, 3. HB data quality: interruptions in data supplied from Hackney Borough Council and Gloucester City Council, and 4. State Pension Statistics. A new section (2. HB caseload and flows data on Stat-Xplore: revisions made to our statistics) has been added. In the methodology statement for Housing Benefit caseload and flows statistics, a new has been section added about revisions to HB statistics, and a new data source added (Universal Credit Full System data (UCFS)) to the section on data sources.
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Updated section 1. Scottish devolution and added new section 2. HB data quality: interruptions in data supplied from Hackney Borough Council and Gloucester City Council and new section 3. HB data on Stat-Xplore: suspension of Passporting Benefit Status field.
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Revised the Benefit Combination statistics: background information note. Added Child Disability Payment and Disability Living Allowance information to section 3.1 (Methodological differences – PIP), updated the cases cleaned table in section 3.5 (Cleaning), added a new section 4 about Scottish Devolution, and added information about February 2022 to the table in section 8 (Changes to the series).
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Revised version of the background information note for the DWP benefits statistical summary. Main revisions are to sections 1. State Pension Statistics and 6. Scottish devolution. The latest release of DWP benefit statistics has been published today (15 February 2022).
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Revised version of the background information note for the DWP benefits statistical summary. This has been updated to support the latest release of these statistics, also published today (16 November 2021).
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Updated the background information notes for the DWP benefits statistical summary and Benefit Combination statistics. For the benefits statistical summary, added information about IIDB datasets to the introduction and a new section 1 on State Pension statistics. Revised section 2 with updated information about the impact of coronavirus on JSA statistics, and section 5 with additional information about Housing Benefit statistics. Also added an update to section 7 about Stat-Xplore and the AA and DLA Main Disabling Condition datasets. For the Benefit Combination statistics, information for August 2021 has been added to the table of changes in section 7 and a new Annex A (List and Classification of Variables) has been added. The latest releases of DWP benefit summary and Benefit Combination statistics have been published today, 17 August 2021.
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Revised versions of the 'Background information note', 'Methodology statement' and 'Quality statement'. Updated the information about Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) statistics. The latest release of IIDB statistics are now available on the Stat-Xplore online tool.
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Updated version of the background information note - includes a new section 2 on Housing Benefit data and a revised section 3 on Get Your State Pension. The latest release of DWP benefits statistics has been published today (18 May 2021).
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Added a new document to the page 'Response to Office for Statistics Regulation report: DWP benefits statistical summary'. This sets out the actions needed (and those already taken) to maintain the National Statistics badging on the DWP quarterly benefit statistics.
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Revised version of the background information notes for the DWP benefits statistical summary and Benefit Combination statistics, and a revised quality statement for the DWP benefits statistical summary. These have been updated to support the latest release of these statistics, also published today (23 February 2020).
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Published 2 new documents: Bereavement Support Payment statistics: background information and methodology, and Housing Benefit caseload and flows statistics: methodology statement.
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Revised versions of the background information note and methodology statement - both now include new information about the use of data from the DWP Customer Information System (CIS). These have been revised to support the latest release of DWP benefits statistics, also published today (11 August 2020).
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Updated the uses and users document - changes to how the data can be accessed and how DWP analyse the use of it.
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Revised versions of the background information note, methodology statement and quality statement. These have been revised to support the latest release of DWP benefits statistics (also published today, 19 May 2020).
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Published revised version of the 'DWP statistical summary: background information note', now dated August 2019. The note had been updated to support the latest release of DWP benefit statistics on 13 August 2019.
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Replaced 'DWP statistical summary: background information note' with an updated version dated May 2019. The note had been updated to support the release of DWP benefit statistics on 14 May 2019.
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Replaced 'DWP statistical summary: background information note' with an updated version dated February 2019. The note had been updated to support the release of DWP benefit statistics on 19 February 2019.
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Replaced 'DWP statistical summary: background information note' with an updated version dated November 2018. The note had been updated to support the release of DWP benefit statistics on 13 November 2018.
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Replaced 'DWP statistical summary: background information note' with an updated version dated August 2018. The note had been updated to support the release of DWP benefit statistics on 14 August 2018.
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Added a new background information note for benefit combination caseloads.
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Replaced 'DWP statistical summary: background information note' with updated version dated February 2017.
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Added link to 'Monthly rate of claimants sanctioned: background information and methodology'.
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Replaced 'DWP statistical summary: background information note' with updated version. Information added about groupings used in official statistics on Jobseeker's Allowance sanction decisions and reasons (page 3, paragraph 4).
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First published.
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