Housing Benefit & Council Tax Benefit Quarterly Summary Statistics: February 2007
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Housing Benefit & Council Tax Benefit
Housing Benefit (HB) and Council Tax Benefit (CTB) are income-related benefits administered by Local Authorities. People are eligible to claim HB if they are liable to pay rent (or are treated as if they were so liable) in respect of the dwelling they occupy as their home. CTB is designed to help people on low-income pay their Council Tax.
The number of Housing Benefit (HB) recipients increased during the quarter to February 2007 by over 10 thousand (0.27%), a rise of 41 thousand (1.01%) in the year, to stand at 4.03 million.
The number of tenants in Registered Social Landlord (RSL) accommodation claiming rent allowance increased in the quarter by 14 thousand (0.97%), an increase of 72.6 thousand (5.08%) in the year, to stand at 1.50 million.
The number of local authority tenants claiming a rent rebate decreased by 18 thousand (1.12%) over the quarter and decreased by 86.2 thousand (4.98%) in the year, to 1.64 million.
Large Stock Voluntary Transfers (LSVT), which is the transfer of LA tenancies to Registered Social Landlords, continue to increase the RSL caseload numbers, with a corresponding decrease in local authority tenant numbers.
Council Tax Benefit (CTB) recipients, excluding second adult rebates increased in the quarter by 12 thousand (0.24%), an increase of 81.5 thousand (1.6%) in the year to stand at 5.09 million.
There is evidence to suggest that changes to the administration of HB and CTB, such as the abolition of benefit periods and the requirement to make a new claim when moving into work, contributed to the sharp increase in reported HB and CTB caseloads seen between November 2003 and August 2004. The reported rises may be due to a reduction in the number of outstanding claims which tend not to be measured in the caseloads count.
However, increases in reported CTB caseloads since August 2004 are probably reflecting a true increase in recipient numbers, with recent campaigns aimed at increasing benefit takeup amongst the elderly eligible population likely to be a key driver of this growth.
- Background (36KB)
Contents
| Table HB 1.1 | All Housing Benefit recipients by tenure and if paid as in receipt of/ not in receipt of IS/PC (GC)/JSA(IB) |
| Table HB 1.2 | All Rent Allowance recipients by tenure |
| Table HB 1.3 | All Housing Benefit recipients average weekly amounts by tenure |
| Table HB 1.4 | Breakdown of all Rent Allowance recipients average weekly amounts by tenure |
| Table HB 1.5 | All Housing Benefit average weekly amounts by paid as in receipt of/not in receipt of IS/PC(GC)/JSA(IB) |
| Table HB 1.6 | Annual percentage change in Housing Benefit caseload by region and paid as in receipt of/not in receipt of IS/PC(GC)/JSA(IB) |
| Table HB 1.7 | Housing Benefit caseload by Government Office Region (GOR) and tenure |
| Table HB 1.8 | All Housing Benefit recipients average weekly amounts by Government Office Region (GOR) and tenure |
| Table HB 1.9 | All Housing Benefit recipients weekly eligible rent by Government Office Region (GOR) and tenure |
| Table HB 1.10 | Housing Benefit recipients assessed under the Local Reference Rent (Jan '96 or Oct '97) Scheme |
| Table HB 1.11 | Housing Benefit recipients assessed under the Single Room Rent (Oct 96) Scheme |
| Table HB 1.12 | Average weekly amounts of rent for all recipients with a deregulated tenancy, by scheme under |
| Table HB 2.1 | All main Council Tax Benefit recipients paid as in receipt of/not in receipt of IS/PC(GC)/JSA(IB) |
| Table HB 2.2 | All average weekly amounts of Council Tax Benefit and eligible Council Tax paid as in receipt of/not in receipt of IS/PC(GC)/JSA(IB) |
| Table HB 2.3 | Annual percentage change in Council Tax Benefit caseload by Government Office Region (GOR) paid as in receipt of/not in receipt of IS/PC(GC)/JSA(IB) |
| Table HB 2.4 | Council Tax Benefit caseload by Government Office Region (GOR) paid as in receipt of/not in receipt of IS/PC(GC)/JSA(IB) |
| Table HB 2.5 | Average weekly amounts of Council Tax Benefit and average weekly amounts of eligible Council Tax by Government Office Region (GOR) |
| Table HB 3.1 | Housing Benefit recipients by County, Local Authority and tenure, paid as in receipt of/not in receipt of IS/PC(GC)/JSA(IB) |
| Table HB 3.2 | Council Tax Benefit recipients by County, Local Authority and tenure, paid as in receipt of/not in receipt of IS/PC(GC)/JSA(IB) |
