Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit caseload
The latest national statistics on Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit caseload produced by the Department for Work and Pensions were released on 15 May 2013 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.
Statistics are based on Housing Benefit (HB) and Council Tax Benefit (CTB) recipients in Great Britain at November 2008 to February 2013.
For Housing Benefit recipients all data is now released via Stat-Xplore, DWP's new interactive visualisation software (see links below).
The key points from the latest release are:
At February 2013:
- The total number of people receiving Housing Benefit was 5.08 million, with 5.90 million claiming Council Tax Benefit.
- 3.79 million Housing Benefit recipients were aged under 65, representing almost three quarters of all Housing Benefit recipients.
- 67 per cent of Housing Benefit recipients were tenants of Social Sector landlords.
- Almost 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 £89.30 per week, and for Council Tax Benefit recipients, the overall average award was £15.67 per week.
- 3.98 million Housing Benefit recipients were single, with 64% of these being female. Of the 1.80 million recipients with at least one child dependent, 1.21 million of these were single.
To access the latest release in full click here 
Statistics on Housing Benefit claimants are now available through Stat-Xplore, a new interactive way to create your own tables of Housing Benefit claimants and weekly award amounts. Stat-Xplore includes detailed geographical breakdowns, including local authority, parliamentary constituency, and census output area.
Summary statistics on Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claimants are also available here 
(please note that this will be the final update of this Excel file).
Historical releases and further information on the statistics is available here.
The local authority breakdown contained in the release of these National Statistics is based on the local authority in which the HB / CTB claim is administered.
Coverage: Great Britain
Geographic Breakdown: Local Authority, Parliamentary Constituency and Census Output Area
Next Release Date: 14 August 2013
The Housing Benefit series will now be published via Stat-Xplore on a quarterly basis, showing monthly figures. Housing Benefit Flows will continue to be published quarterly, using the existing timetable.
Council Tax Benefit was abolished in April 2013 and replaced by a system of localised support. In England, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) will be responsible for statistics. The Scottish and Welsh Governments with have similar responsibility. See: Giving local authorities more control over how they spend public money in their area
This summary will cease to report Council Tax Benefit in May 2013, ending with the February 2013 numbers (for technical reasons, March 2013 numbers are not possible). The Housing Benefit series will continue via Stat-Xplore as explained above.
To assist with the development of local schemes which will be introduced after the abolishment of Council Tax Benefit on 31 March 2013, statistics showing the breakdown of CTB recipients, by passported status and relevant passporting benefit, by age (aged under 60 and aged 60 and over) and Local Authority Area, at April 2012, have been released. The statistics can be found on the Ad Hoc Analysis page available here.
The latest experimental official statistics on Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit flows produced by the Department for Work and Pensions were released on 15 May 2013 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority
Statistics are based on Housing Benefit (HB) and Council Tax Benefit (CTB) recipients in Great Britain at November 2008 to February 2013.
Experimental Flows tables are available here
Click here for a Guide to using Experimental Statistics
Coverage: Great Britain
Geographic Breakdown: Local Authority
Next Release Date: 14 August 2013
