Official Statistics

Housing Benefit statistics on speed of processing 2018 to 2019

Statistics on the average number of days to process a new Housing Benefit claim or a change in circumstance of an existing claimant.

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Documents

Statistical release: January to March 2019 (quarter 4, 2018 to 2019)

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Tables: January to March 2019 (quarter 4, 2018 to 2019)

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Statistical release: October to December 2018 (quarter 3, 2018 to 2019)

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Tables: October to December 2018 (quarter 3, 2018 to 2019)

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Statistical release: July to September 2018 (quarter 2, 2018 to 2019)

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Tables: July to September 2018 (quarter 2, 2018 to 2019)

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Statistical release: April to June 2018 (quarter 1, 2018 to 2019)

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Tables: April to June 2018 (quarter 1, 2018 to 2019)

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Details

The latest release of these statistics can be found in the collection of speed of processing statistics.

Speed of processing is a measure of the average time it takes to process a:

  • new Housing Benefit claim
  • change in circumstance of an existing Housing Benefit claimant

The average time is measured in calendar days, rounded to the nearest day.

Publication frequency

The review on the frequency of publications is now closed and we are reviewing the responses. Findings will be published soon and these will outline any changes to the frequency of publication.

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Published 31 October 2018
Last updated 13 September 2019 + show all updates
  1. A correction has been made to monthly data for February 2019, this has caused changes to figures for quarter 4. The error was due to a minor coding issue, amended code and additional quality assurance processes have been put into place to ensure this does not happen again.

  2. Published the latest Housing Benefit speed of processing statistics for the period January to March 2019. This is also known as quarter 4.

  3. Published the latest Housing Benefit speed of processing statistics for the period October to December 2018. This is also known as quarter 3.

  4. Published the latest Housing Benefit speed of processing statistics for the period July to September 2018. This is also known as quarter 2.

  5. Changed the 9th paragraph on page 2 of the release to: "New HB claims are no longer accepted from working-age claimants in some Universal Credit (UC) areas. This has an impact on figures at LA level; namely that the number of new claims will fall in these areas and the processing days for new claims may change. The impact could be greater in areas where UC is more established, or in areas that have implemented the full service, which is taking claims from all claimant types. Due to this, care should be taken when interpreting the data, particularly when comparing different LAs. Start dates for the implementation of the UC Full Service for all LAs that had started this process before the end of June 2018 are included in the accompanying data tables for this release".

  6. First published.