Accredited official statistics

Child and Working Tax Credits statistics: finalised annual awards, supplement on payments, background and definitions - 2023 to 2025

Published 30 October 2025

1. What were tax credits?

Tax credits were a system of financial support for families based on their specific circumstances.

The system, introduced in 2003, formed part of wider government policy to provide support to parents returning to work, reduce child poverty and increase financial support for families. The design of the system meant that as families circumstances change, so did (daily) entitlement to tax credits.

Tax credits were made up of Working Tax Credit (WTC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC). These were based on household circumstances and could be claimed jointly by couples or by single adults, whether or not they had children. Entitlement was based on the following factors:

• age
• income
• hours worked
• number and age of children
• childcare costs
• disabilities

Tax credits ended on 5 April 2025.

2. Working Tax Credit (WTC)

Provided in-work support for people on low incomes, with or without children. It was available for in-work support to people who were aged at least 16 and either:

• single, worked 16 or more hours a week and were responsible for a child or young person
• in a couple and were responsible for a child or young person where their combined weekly working hours were at least 24, with one claimant working at least 16 hours
• worked 16 or more hours a week and were receiving or had recently received a qualifying sickness or disability related benefit and had a disability that put them at a disadvantage of getting a job
• worked 16 or more hours a week and were aged 60 or over

Otherwise, it was available for people who were aged 25 and over who worked 30 hours a week or more.

WTC was made up of the following elements:

• basic element: which was paid to any working person who met the basic eligibility conditions
• lone parent element: for lone parents
• second adult element: for couples
• 30 hour element: for individuals who worked at least 30 hours a week, couples where one person worked at least 30 hours a week or couples who had a child and worked a total of 30 hours or more a week between them where one of them worked at least 16 hours a week
• disability element: for people who worked at least 16 hours a week and who had a disability that put them at a disadvantage in getting a job and who were receiving or had recently received a qualifying sickness or disability related benefit
• severe disability element: for people who were in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) (Highest Rate Care Component), Personal Independence Payment (PIP) (Enhanced Daily Living Component) or Attendance Allowance at the highest rate
• childcare element: for a single parent who worked at least 16 hours a week, or couples who either (i) both worked at least 16 hours a week, or (ii) one of them worked at least 16 hours a week and spent money on a registered or approved childcare provider but the other was out of work for being in hospital or in prison

The childcare element of WTC could support up to 70% of childcare costs up to certain maximum limits.

3. Child Tax Credit (CTC)

Provided income-related support for children and qualifying young people aged between 16 and 19 who were in full time, non-advanced education or approved training into a single tax credit, payable to the main carer. Families could claim CTC whether or not the adults are in work.

CTC was made up of the following elements:

• family element: the basic element for families responsible for one or more children or qualifying young people - from 6 April 2017, this element was only payable to families with at least one child born before this date
• child element: paid for each child or qualifying young person the claimant is responsible for - from 6 April 2017, this element was no longer payable in respect of third or subsequent children who were born after this date. Certain exceptions to this rule apply and are set out at GOV.UK
• disability element: for each child or qualifying young person the claimant was responsible for if DLA or PIP was payable for the child, or if the child was certified as blind or severely sight impaired
• severe disability element: for each child or qualifying young person the claimant was responsible for if DLA (Highest Rate Care Component), or PIP (Enhanced Daily Living Component) was payable for the child

4. Tapering

Tapering is the amount of the award that was reduced when the household income exceeded a given threshold. For example, in 2024/25 the income threshold for claimants receiving WTC only and for combined WTC and CTC claimants was £7,955. After this threshold, the taper rate was 41%. Tapering reduces WTC first and then CTC for claimants who receive both. The section below explains how the taper process works in practice.

5. Child and Working Tax Credit Entitlement

The amount of support an eligible family could receive (known as their entitlement) varied depending on their income and their eligibility for specific tax credit elements.

First, a family’s maximum possible entitlement was calculated by adding up the different elements of CTC and WTC that they were eligible for (described above).

A household’s actual entitlement was then determined by tapering this maximum amount according to different thresholds. In 2024/25, families eligible for the WTC received the full entitlement until their annual household income reached £7,955, after which the amount of tax credits they receive was reduced by 41 pence for each £1 they earned beyond this threshold.

If a household was eligible for CTC only, they received the full entitlement until their annual household income reached £19,995 (2024/25). After this point, the amount of tax credits they received was again reduced by 41 pence for each additional £1 of income beyond this threshold.

Because of the range of possible eligibilities and interactions between the elements, both the maximum award and the shape of the above award profile was different for every family with different circumstances.

Tax credits were based on the taxable income of adults within the family. The income used to calculate the award was based on the families’ income from the previous tax year, or on their most recently reported circumstances in-year. Up to £2,500 of any change in annual income between the previous or current year was disregarded in the calculation.

A family’s tax credits award was provisional until finalised at the end of the year or when their award ended, when it was checked against their final income for the year. This publication relates to a snapshot of tax credit support based on provisional incomes and other circumstances as reported at the date when the statistics were extracted.

6. About this publication

6.1 Timing of this publication

The finalised awards supplements on payments is usually published around a year after completion of the entitlement year in question. The one-year lag is due to the finalisation process built into the Tax Credits system.

Most families have until July 31st following the end of the entitlement year to renew their award reporting their finalised income for the year in question. However, families that report income from Self-Assessment (for example, the self-employed) have until January 31st of the following year to finalise their income. As a result, the full picture is not known until at least February the year after the entitlement year ends and consequently publication is delayed until after this period.

7. Provisional awards vs finalised awards

It is important to recognise that the finalised awards statistics are not a revision of the provisional statistics.

The provisional numbers relate to the caseload position at a snapshot point in time, based on the latest family circumstances HMRC have been informed of by each family prior to that particular time.

The finalised awards relate to the complete retrospective picture for the year, based on a finalised view of family incomes and circumstances. The caseload population will be different between the two publications as a result of HMRC knowing the complete finalised picture of the award.

At the start of the year, the tax credit award will be a provisional award reflecting the reported circumstances as at 6 April (the start of the tax year). Over the course of the year, a family’s circumstances may or may not change.

The provisional award is updated each time HMRC are informed of a change in the family’s circumstances and a new provisional award is calculated.

It is only at finalisation (usually 4 to 9 months after the end of the tax year) that the family’s circumstances for the entire year are known and a finalised award can be calculated. As a result, the finalised award statistics are not available until around 12 months after the end of the entitlement year in question.

Given this lag in availability of data, there is some value in looking at a snapshot of families’ circumstances at any given time to give an indication of the level of support one might expect to see subsequently at finalisation.

To illustrate the difference, let us look at a family that has one change of circumstance throughout the year, moving from in-work to out-of-work in January of any one year.

The snapshot data looking at the provisional award in April will model entitlement for the entire year on the basis that the family is in-work for the entire year (since we do not know about the move out-of-work at that time).

It is not until finalisation, and thereby in the finalised award data publication, that the family’s entitlement will be modelled based on 9 months in-work and 3 months out-of-work.

Therefore, the figures for provisional awards are more up to date, but are subject to retrospective change. The sizes of these changes can be seen by comparing the data for selected dates in finalised awards with data published earlier on provisional awards at the same time snapshot dates.

The provisional award data classify families according to the levels of their entitlement at the reference date, modelled from data on their circumstances and their latest annual incomes reported by that date. The actual amount being received at that date can be lower, due to recovery of earlier overpayments.

8. Which publication should I use?

Users interested in the end of year position should use the finalised awards data publication.

Users interested in the current or snapshot position (which may not align precisely with finalised data published later) should use the provisional awards data publication.

Using the finalised award data will also mean the figures will align with other published data on tax credits, such as information in HMRC’s Annual Report \& Accounts. The latest finalised award publication can be found on the personal tax credits statistics page of GOV.UK.

9. What information do the tables contain?

CTC and WTC were claimed by individuals, or jointly by couples, whether or not they had children (described as ‘families’ in this publication). These tables cover families who had claimed, and were eligible for, CTC (or the equivalent via benefits) or WTC for all or part of the 2023/24 and 2024/25 tax years.

Table 1 includes both out-of-work and in-work families, and shows the time series since 2003 to 2004 of the number of overpayments and underpayments paid to the tax credits population. Also included are the aggregate amount of tax credits overpaid or underpaid since 2003 to 2004.

Table 2 and 3 provide an overview of payments to the tax credits population during the 2023/24 and 2024/25 tax years.

Table 4 breaks up these payments by family type and profile.

Table 5 breaks up these payments by the recipients’ income band during the 2023/24 and 2024/25 tax years.

Table 6 breaks up the payments that are underpaid or overpaid at 5 April 2024 and 5 April 2025 by combination of bands of family income from the current and previous year

These tables will also include part year claims for individuals who have moved to UC (an explanation of UC is found below) and these claimants could fall into any payment category (underpaid, overpaid or neither). The actual payment category will be dependent on the in-year finalisation figure for that claimant.

10. Relevant policy changes

In the 2015 Summer Budget, the government announced that the child element of CTC would be limited to two children for those born on or after 6 April 2017 unless certain exceptions apply. Prior to 6 April 2017, the child element of CTC was paid for each child or qualifying young person that the claimant (or his or her partner) was responsible for.

The change means that any family with two or more existing children did not receive any child element for children born on or after that date, subject to exceptions. The child element of CTC continued to be paid for all children born before 6 April 2017.

In addition, any family having their first child born on or after 6 April 2017 did not receive the family element. The family element was previously paid to all families. From 6 April 2017, it was only paid where the claimant was responsible for at least one child or qualifying young person born before 6 April 2017.

For further information, please visit the CTC exceptions to the 2 child limit page on GOV.UK.

11. Universal Credit

Universal Credit (UC) is a payment to help with living costs for those on a low income or out of work. UC was introduced in April 2013 in certain areas of North West England. Since October 2013, it has progressively been rolled out to other areas.

Claimants receive a single monthly household payment, paid into a bank account in the same way as a monthly salary and support for housing costs, children and childcare costs are integrated into UC.

CTC has now been replaced by UC. Since December 2018 there have been no new tax credit claims (except for a small number of families claiming the family premium).

Further information about UC, including making a claim, is available online on the UC page on GOV.UK.

Statistics related to UC are available online and can be found on the UC statistics page on GOV.UK.

12. Uses of these statistics and user engagement

12.1 Uses of these statistics

The statistics contained in this publication will be of interest for anyone that is looking for the most comprehensive data on Tax Credits. Specifically, there are aggregate statistics on who is getting what level of tax credits support and the amount of that support, as well as breakdowns of both by various sub-categories - for example, family composition, family income, work status, and geographical analyses.

It may be of interest to academics, think tanks, political parties interested in the twin aims of Tax Credits: eradicating child poverty and improving work incentives. Equally, it may be of interest for people considering wider questions on government support systems and/or others designing benefit systems.

13. User engagement

Bespoke analysis of tax credits data is possible although there may be a charge depending on the level of complexity and the resources required to produce.

If you would like to discuss your requirements, to comment on the current publications, or for further information about the tax credits statistics please use the contact information at the end of this publication, or from the Statistics at HMRC page.

We are committed to improving the official statistics we publish. We want to encourage and promote user engagement, so we can improve our statistical outputs.

We would welcome any views you have by email to the below address. We will undertake to review user comments on a quarterly basis and use this information to influence the development of our official statistics. We will summarise and publish user comments at regular intervals.

benefitsandcredits.analysis@hmrc.gov.uk.

14. Disclosure control

To avoid the possible disclosure of information about individual families, values have been supressed when underlying sample counts are low. An entry of ‘[z]’ or ‘[low]’ in a table indicates that the data has been rounded down to zero, or holds a negligible value just above zero, or has been withheld in line with HMRC’s Dominance and Disclosure policy.

15. Contact details

Benefits and credits statistics

Media contact: HMRC Press Office

Statistical contact: S Wong-Brown

*[CTC]: Child Tax Credit

*[WTC]: Working Tax Credit

*[UC]: Universal Credit

*[PIP]: Personal Independence Payment

*[DLA]: Disability Living Allowance

*[LA]: Local Authority

*[LSOA]: Lower Super Output Area

*[HMRC]: HM Revenue and Customs