This is a quarterly National Statistics release of the main DWP-administered benefits via Stat-Xplore or supplementary tables where appropriate.

Scottish devolution: changes to the presentation of DWP statistics

The https://www.gov.scot/publications/responsibility-for-benefits-overview/" class="govuk-link">devolution of social security benefits to the Scottish Government is now having an impact DWP statistics.

On Stat-Xplore, we added a split to DLA geography fields to provide breakdowns based on policy ownership. Users of these statistics should make data selections based on these policy ownership lines.

Statistics showing the number of applications and awards to the new Child Disability Payment have been released by Scottish Government. Similar statistics for Adult Disability Payment covering its initial roll out phase are also available.

Please refer to our background information note for more information on presentational changes we have made to our statistics in response to Scottish devolution.

Housing Benefit: Hackney Borough Council data and Gloucester City Council

From September 2022 Housing Benefit data for Hackney have seen final remediation measures removed. This follows an earlier disruption in data supply and subsequent data management.

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 later in 2023. Until then HB statistics that cover Gloucester will be derived from earlier data using the same approach we adopted for Hackney.

Please refer to the background information note for more information on the impacts to our statistics and how we have managed these interruptions.

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. The latest release contains State Pensions estimates for the quarters to August 2022.

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.

For more information, see the background information note.

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 i

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: changes to the presentation of statistics

The https://www.gov.scot/publications/responsibility-for-benefits-overview/" class="govuk-link">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.

Our DWP benefit statistics statistical summaries will now focus on DLA and PIP claims where policy ownership has been retained by DWP. Figures, charts and narratives will primarily reflect England, Wales and any unknown or abroad claims. The residual count of DLA claims in Scotland will be provided for information only.

To reflect these changes, on Stat-Xplore we have added a new split to DLA geography fields to provide breakdowns based on policy ownership. Users of these statistics should make data selections based on these policy ownership lines.

Statistics showing the number of applications and awards to the new Child Disability Payment have been released by Scottish Government. Similar statistics for Adult Disability Payment covering its initial roll out phase are also available.

Please refer to our background information note for more information on Scottish devolution.

Housing Benefit (HB) dataset: revision to previously published figures

We have introduced methodological changes in how some of our HB statistics are categorised, and some outcomes have changed in our published statistics.

Please note, at August 2022 changes were made to the following fields, with new revised data presented from April 2018:

• Passported Benefit Status
• Employment Status
• Removal of Spare Room Subsidy – Spare Room Subsidy Indicator
• Removal of Spare Room Subsidy – Number of Spare Rooms
• Removal of Spare Room Subsidy – Weekly Spare Room Reduction Amount bands
• Age

• Client Type

• Gender

Following a policy change, we recently discovered that the passporting indicator on Housing Benefit statistics had been incorrectly recording outcomes for a section of claimants who receive Housing Benefit and Universal Credit at the same time. The correct outcome should have been “Passported: In receipt of Universal Credit.”

We have now fixed this issue, but in doing so, other variables were affected where the visible presence of a Universal Credit claim changes some outcomes.

An earlier methodological change to make better use of evidence from the Customer Information System has also been applied to datasets between April 2018 and May 2020.

Please refer to our background information note for more information about these changes. Further details on HB methodology can be found in our methodology statement.

Housing Benefit: Hackney Borough Council data and Gloucester

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 https://www.gov.scot/publications/responsibility-for-benefits-overview/" class="govuk-link">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

This is a quarterly National Statistics release of the main DWP-administered benefits via Stat-Xplore or supplementary tables where appropriate.

Scottish devolution: changes to the presentation of DWP statistics

The https://www.gov.scot/publications/responsibility-for-benefits-overview/" class="govuk-link">devolution of social security benefits to the Scottish Government is now having an impact DWP statistics.

On Stat-Xplore, we added a split to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) geography fields to provide breakdowns based on policy ownership. Users of these statistics should make data selections based on these policy ownership lines.

Statistics showing the number of applications and awards to the new Child Disability Payment have been released by the Scottish government. Similar statistics for Adult Disability Payment covering its initial roll out phase are also available.

Please refer to our background information note for more information on presentational changes we have made to our statistics in response to Scottish devolution.

Housing Benefit: Gloucester City Council

As a result of a criminal cyber-attack, Gloucester City Council is unable to supply DWP with Housing Benefit (HB) data until further notice. This has affected Housing Benefit statistics from December 2021. Data problems are unlikely to be fixed for the foreseeable future. Until then, HB statistics that cover Gloucester will be derived from earlier data using the same approach we previously adopted for Hackney Borough Council.

Please refer to the background information note for more information on how we have managed these interruptions and the impacts to our statistics.

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. The latest release contains State Pensions estimates for the quarters to November 2022.

A biannual release of supplementary tables to show State Pension deferment increments and proportions of beneficiaries receiving a full amount has been suspended. This release is normally based on a 5% sample of the legacy computer system. Given the absence of GYSP data, the figures are affected by the same issues as described above. 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.

For more information, see the background information note.

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. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics