Income Support
Work and Pensions
Frank Field (Birkenhead, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) housing benefit and (b) council tax benefit recipients were (i) in receipt and (ii) not in receipt of income support in each of the last 30 years.
Maria Miller (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Disabled People), Work and Pensions; Basingstoke, Conservative)
The information as requested is not available prior to November 2008. Such information we have is shown in the following tables:
| Housing benefit (HB) recipients, Great Britain, November 2008 to February 2012 | |||
| Number | |||
| Total HB caseload | Of which are in receipt of income support | Of which are not in receipt of income support | |
| November 2008 | 4,171,940 | 1,516,930 | 2,655,010 |
| February 2009 | 4,301,790 | 1,505,510 | 2,796,280 |
| February 2010 | 4,700,160 | 1,446,420 | 3,253,740 |
| February 2011 | 4,865,400 | 1,337,890 | 3,527,510 |
| February 2012 | 5,004,500 | 1,175,200 | 3,829,300 |
| Council tax benefit (CTB) recipients, Great Britain, November 2008 to February 2012 | |||
| Number | |||
| Total CTB caseload | Of which are in receipt of income support | Of which are not in receipt of income support | |
| November 2008 | 5,149,390 | 1,571,740 | 3,577,650 |
| February 2009 | 5,305,980 | 1,559,660 | 3,746,320 |
| February 2010 | 5,727,140 | 1,492,760 | 4,234,380 |
| February 2011 | 5,854,110 | 1,374,530 | 4,479,580 |
| February 2012 | 5,919,550 | 1,199,680 | 4,719,870 |
| Notes: 1. Recipients are as at second Thursday of the month. 2. Components may not sum to total due to rounding. 3. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 4. Data for those HB/CTB recipients with income support are not available prior to the introduction of SHBE. Data from November 2008 onwards are derived from the new SHBE extract which is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems, whereas earlier years are derived from quarterly aggregate clerical returns. Figures from the two sources may not be directly comparable; the introduction of SHBE has improved the accuracy of HB/CTB statistics as it is based on individual claimant records rather than summary statistics, has a higher completion rate from local authorities leading to less estimation of missing data, and is subject to more thorough quality assurance 5. Figures are derived from published data at: http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=hbctb 6. Figures prior to November 2008 are published at the link below however income support recipients are not separately identifiable as they are combined with pension credit recipients. http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/index.php?page=hbctb_arc Source: Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE). | |||