Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up
Introduction
Latest estimates of take-up of income-related benefits for Great Britain cover: Income Support, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and income-based Jobseeker's Allowance.
The latest report contains information on take-up relating to financial year 2007-08. It contains key results 
for percentage take-up by caseload and expenditure, and also includes estimates of the total and average amounts of benefit claimed and unclaimed. The National Statistics Press Release also contains a set of results. The publication explores some of the reasons for non-take-up and includes the position of those entitled to but not receiving benefits in the household income distribution - as defined by the Households Below Average Income series. The report re-presents statistics for 2006-07. The chapters are rounded off by exploring patterns in caseload take-up for each benefit since 1997-98. Figures for previous years can be found in earlier reports.
The main data sources used to produce percentage take-up statistics are the Family Resources Survey, used to model the population in private households entitled to income-related benefits; and the DWP and local authority benefit records data - the basis of the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study and the DWP Statistical Summaries - providing the counts of benefit recipients and typical amounts received.
Developments
New analyses have been added to the publication, which compare the characteristics of Entitled Non-Recipients and Entitled Recipients, and in doing so explore some of the reasons for non-take-up. These new analyses compare ENRs and ERs in terms of:
- Ethnicity, for all benefits
This year we are unable to produce the estimate of take-up by caseload and expenditure for Second Adult Rebates (Tables 4.5 and 4.6 in the 2006-07 publication). See Chapter 4 for further details.
Related topics
In the summer of 2003, DWP analysts embarked on a National Statistics Quality Review of take-up of income-related benefit statistics. The aim was to assess whether the statistics continue to serve users' needs and to identify areas of development. The full report , which contains the context, scope and conclusions of the review, was published on 26 October 2006.
Social research can play an important role in understanding take-up behaviour, and evaluating initiatives designed to promote take-up as well as improving the quality of statistics.
- Please feel free to view the DWP research pages.
Contact us
If you would like further information on the take-up of income-related benefits then please contact:
email: irb.takeup@dwp.gsi.gov.uk
or
IRB Take-Up
Income Analysis
Department for Work and Pensions
The Adelphi
1-11 John Adam Street
London
WC2N 6HT
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7962 8222