Accredited official statistics

DWP abstract of statistics: policies and statements

Policies and statements related to the DWP abstract of statistics.

• From: Department for Work and Pensions
• Published: 9 July 2013
• Last updated: 28 January 2026
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  1. 28 January 2026

     New information has been added to the retrospective changes section of the 'quality statement' document. Minor changes have been made to the 'quality statement', 'methodology statement' and 'uses and users' documents. The latest release of the Abstract of DWP benefit rate statistics has been published today (28 January 2026).

  2. 22 January 2025

     Minor changes made to the quality statement, methodology statement and Uses and users documents. The documents now use the term "Accredited Official Statistics" instead of "National Statistics. The latest release of the Abstract of DWP benefit rate statistics has been published today (22 January 2025).

  3. 24 January 2024

     Minor changes made to the quality statement and annex C of the methodology statement. The latest release of the Abstract of DWP benefit rate statistics 2023 has been published today (24 January 2023).

  4. 25 January 2023

     Published a revised version of the 'Abstract of DWP benefit rate statistics methodology statement'. Information about the Social Security (Uprating of Benefits) Act 2021 has been added to Annex C: 'Price and Earnings Indices used in the Abstract of DWP benefit rate statistics'.

  5. 25 January 2022

     Revised versions of the methodology statement and the uses and users document. Both updated to support the latest release of the Abstract of DWP benefit rate statistics 2022, also published today (25 January 2022).

  6. 26 January 2021

     Revised Methodology statement - updated to support the latest release of the Abstract of DWP benefit rate statistics 2020, also published today (26 January 2021).

  7. 18 February 2020

     Revised (and now published in HTML format) to support the latest release of the Abstract of DWP benefit rate statistics 2019, also published today (18 February 2020).

  8. 11 January 2018

     Added revised methodology and quality statements, dated January 2018. The revised methodology statement takes account of moderate methodological changes to provide more accurate comparisons between the values of benefits, prices and earnings.

  9. 9 July 2013

     First published.

Documents

Quality statement for the DWP abstract of statistics

HTML

Abstract of DWP benefit rate statistics methodology statement

HTML

Uses and users of the DWP abstract of statistics

HTML

Details

These policies and statements relate to the DWP abstract of statistics.

DWP complies with the UK Statistics Authority code of practice for official statistics.

There is more about our statistics on the Statistics at DWP page.