Accredited official statistics

Child and Working Tax Credits statistics: finalised annual awards, supplement on payments, commentary - 2024 to 2025

Published 30 October 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-credits-statistics-supplement-on-payments-2023-to-2025/child-and-working-tax-credits-statistics-finalised-annual-awards-supplement-on-payments-commentary-2024-to-2025

1. Background

These statistics provide a breakdown of payments made for tax credit claims based on finalised data. This is a supplementary publication following the Finalised Annual Awards publications released in October 2025 for tax year 2024 to 2025, following award finalisation at the close of Tax Credits in April 2025.

The rate of decline in the number of families receiving tax credits increased in 2024 to 2025, largely due to the roll out of Universal Credit.

Generally, the decreases observed between 2024 to 2025 were observed in our finalised annual awards publication found below:

Child and Working Tax Credits statistics, finalised annual awards - 2024 to 2025

Finalisation occurs four to nine months after the end of the tax year when the families’ circumstances for the whole year are known and a finalised award can be calculated. Tax credits recipient families that delay reporting changes in household circumstances can result in either an overpayment or underpayment in their claim.

1.1 Future of Supplement on Payments statistics

Users of these statistics should note that this is the final statistical release in the series due to the closure of tax credits in April 2025.

2. Main headlines

Figure 1: Number of awards by payment type and year

Figure 1 shows the number of tax credits claims that were overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly since 2022-23.

The total number of tax credits continues to decrease, as has the number of underpaid, overpaid and correctly paid awards.

Between 6 April 2024 and 5 April 2025:

  • 20% (115,000) of tax credits were paid correctly, a fall of 23 percentage points compared to last year

  • 79% (457,000) of tax credits were overpaid, a rise of 31 percentage points compared to last year

  • 1% (6,000) of tax credits were underpaid, a fall of 8 percentage points compared to last year

  • the average amount overpaid this year was £428, and the average amount underpaid this year was £1,615

3. Underpaid awards

Underpayments can range from £10 to over £2,000. Between 6 April 2024 and 5 April 2025:

  • the number of underpaid awards in all bands of underpayment from £10 to over £2,000 decreased from last year

  • the more than £2,000 payment group saw the smallest decrease in number of underpaid awards, of 86%

  • the £50 to £100 payment group saw the largest decrease in number of underpaid awards, of 97%

4. Overpaid awards by band of payment

Figure 2: Overpaid awards by band of overpayment

Figure 3 shows the number of tax credits that were overpaid, split by band of overpayment, for both this year and last year’s finalised awards.

Overpayments can range from £10 to over £2,000. Between 6 April 2024 and 5 April 2025:

  • the highest number of overpayments were in the £200 to £500 group, the same as last year

  • the £100 to £200 payment group saw the smallest decrease in number of overpaid awards, of 3%

  • on the other hand, the more than £2,000 payment group saw the largest decrease in number of overpaid awards, of 81%

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