Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit
The latest national statistics on Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit produced by the Department for Work and Pensions were released on 20th January 2010 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority
Statistics are based on Housing Benefit (HB) and Council Tax Benefit (CTB) claimants in Great Britain at November 2008 to October 2009.
The key points from the latest release are:
- At October 2009, the total number of people claiming Housing Benefit was 4.57 million, with 5.59 million claiming Council Tax Benefit.
- 3.03 million Housing Benefit recipients were of working-age, representing almost two thirds of all Housing Benefit recipients.
- 70 per cent of Housing Benefit recipients were tenants of Social Sector landlords and 29 per cent were tenants of Private Sector landlords.
- Over two thirds of both Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit recipients are in receipt of a Passported Benefit.
- The overall average Housing Benefit award is £81.90 per week, and for Council Tax Benefit recipients, the overall average award was £15.59 per week.
To access the latest release in full click here 
Additional tables are available here 
Experimental Flows data are available here
Further information on the statistics is available here
Coverage: Great Britain
Geographic Breakdown:Local Authority
Next Release Date: 17th February 2010