DWP benefits statistics: May 2022
Statistics on the main benefits administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
Documents
Details
This is a quarterly National Statistics release of the main DWP-administered benefits via Stat-Xplore or supplementary tables where appropriate.
Impact of Scottish devolution: proposed changes to the presentation of statistics
The devolution of social security benefits to the Scottish Government is beginning to impact DWP statistics, where benefit administration is moving from DWP to the Scottish Government. As this change takes place, for a transitional period, Social Security Scotland will administer new claims and DWP will continue to administer existing claims under an agency agreement. DWP will no longer hold a complete count of the number of claimants across Great Britain.
We are now considering how we present Official Statistics on disability benefits, and the key change we propose will be the removal of the Great Britain total. Instead, we propose to present totals for England and Wales, where DWP is retaining policy ownership, and a separate breakdown for Scotland where we are administering claims on behalf of the Scottish Government.
Under this proposal DWP would only make presentational changes when a material impact on the benefit statistics becomes apparent. We want to continue to provide a total picture for Great Britain in situations where DWP still administer a benefit in its entirety. For Disability Living Allowance, we want to make changes in time for our release in August 2022.
We would welcome your views on these proposed changes, please contact: benefits.statistics@dwp.gov.uk
Please refer to our background information note for more information on Scottish devolution.
State Pension
During 2019, a new DWP computer system called “Get Your State Pension” (GYSP) came online to handle State Pension claims. The GYSP system is now handling a sizeable proportion of new claims.
We are not yet able to include GYSP system data in our published statistics for State Pension. The number of GYSP cases are too high to allow us to continue to publish State Pension data on Stat-Xplore. In the short term, we will provide GYSP estimates based on payment systems data. As a temporary measure, State Pension statistics will be published via data tables only. This release contains State Pensions estimates for the five quarters to November 2021.
For these reasons, a biannual release of supplementary tables to show State Pension deferment increments and proportions of beneficiaries receiving a full amount has been suspended. The latest available time period for these figures remains September 2020.
We are developing new statistical datasets to properly represent both computer systems. Once we have quality assured the new data it will be published on Stat-Xplore, including a refresh of historical data using the best data available.
Read our background information note for more information about this.
Housing Benefit (HB) dataset: removal of Passported Status field
A policy change was introduced in April 2018 whereby Universal Credit (UC) recipients in specified types of temporary accommodation would need to claim support for housing costs through Housing Benefit (HB) rather than the Housing Element of UC. This change has led to a growing number of HB claimants showing in our published data with an incorrect passporting status on the Passporting Benefit Status field.
People who claim UC and HB together in this way should be shown in our statistics as “Passported: In receipt of Universal Credit.” However, up until now, they have been reported as “Non-Passported: Standard Claim.”
We have taken the decision to suspend the Passporting Benefit Status field on Stat-Xplore HB datasets from April 2018 and from corresponding HB flows datasets. We are investigating potential ways of correcting this field to ensure its accuracy. We will update users when we are ready to restore this breakdown.
Housing Benefit: Hackney Borough Council data and Gloucester City Council
Housing benefit data covering the periods November 2020 to July 2021 was affected by an interruption in the supply of data from Hackney Borough council.
Hackney Borough Council have now resumed the supply of Housing Benefit data to DWP. Data from August 2021 is based on their most recent return. However, it should be noted that recovery work in Hackney is still ongoing, and therefore the statistics for this period are presented as a best available estimate.
A similar interruption has occurred at Gloucester City Council. As a result of a criminal cyber-attack, Gloucester City Council is unable to supply DWP with Housing Benefit data until further notice. This has affected Housing Benefit statistics from December 2021. Data problems are unlikely to be fixed until late into 2022. Until then HB statistics that cover Gloucester will be derived from earlier data using the same approach we adopted for Hackney.
Please refer to our background information note for more information on the impacts to our statistics and how we have managed this interruption.
Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) statistics are now released on Stat-Xplore only. IIDB statistics on Stat-Xplore cover from March 2017 onwards. Read further guidance about this change and previously published ODS tables.
May 2022 release of IIDB statistics: new release date
During the production process, some anomalies in the IIDB data were identified. The May 2022 release of IIDB statistics on Stat-Xplore was delayed. Data issues have been fully resolved, and we released the statistics at 9.30am on 19 July 2022. We would like to apologise for the inconvenience this delay has caused.
Also published
Also published as part of this release as data tables are statistics on:
More information
A statistical summary document is published every six months in February and August each year. It contains a high level summary of the latest National Statistics on DWP benefits. Commentary on Benefit Combination statistics is now included twice a year as part of this collection. Benefit Combinations statistics are released quarterly on Stat-Xplore.
Find further information about the publication and statistics, including details on changes and revisions, in the background and methodology documents.
Further information about this release can be found on the DWP benefits statistics collection page and in the “Welfare and Benefits” community on StatsUserNet.
We now have a dedicated email address for this publication. If you have any comments or questions, get in touch at: benefits.statistics@dwp.gov.uk
Last updated 31 May 2022 + show all updates
-
Updated the information on the page about the delayed May 2022 release of Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) statistics.
-
First published.