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22 A reduction in the number of working-age people living in families claiming Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance who have been claiming these benefits for long periods of time (Great Britain).
Baseline and trends: Baseline year – 1997. The number of people living in families in receipt of Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance for two years or more peaked at around 2.3 million in early 1996. Since then, the number has fallen to 2.0 million in February 1997 (the baseline), and to around 1.8 million in 1999 and subsequent years. This year has seen a reduction from 1.79 million in 2006 to 1.77 million in 2007.
Adult beneficiaries aged under 60 of income support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance claiming for two years (Great Britain)
Read chart notes
- All figures are at end February each year. Figures for 2004, 2005 and 2006 also include partners aged under 60 of Pension Credit recipients for consistency – in earlier years, partners aged under 60 of Minimum Income Guarantee recipients have also been included.
- Income Support for the unemployed was replaced by income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance in October 1996. Prior to 1997, figures include Income Support for the unemployed.
- Figures were previously based on May quarters each year but the whole series has been revised and is now based on February quarters each year. This is because, in October 2005, the Department for Work and Pensions moved from the use of 5 per cent data to 100 per cent data from the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS). The WPLS allows for three months’ retrospection which incorporates claims that were added to the computer system after the reference data and which would have previously been missed from the 5 per cent data.
Definition: Number of adults aged 16–59 in families that have been claiming Income Support (including Minimum Income Guarantee/Pension Credit) or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance for two years or more (claimants and partners). Figures are based on 100 per cent data for Income Support claimants from 2000 onwards and 5 per cent sample data rated up to 100 per cent totals for partners and income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants and for all figures prior to 2000. Income Support for the unemployed is taken directly from 5 per cent data. The figures are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation.
The figures include partners aged under 60 of Pension Credit recipients who have been claiming Minimum Income Guarantee/Pension Credit for two years or more, who would previously have been included as Income Support beneficiaries. There were 57,000 partners aged under 60 of Pension Credit recipients at February 2006.
Data source: Income Support 100 per cent data, plus Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Pension Credit 5 per cent Quarterly Statistical Enquiries, February quarters.
Further information:
User defined tabulations of DWP benefits statistics are now available on the tabulation tool: www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/tabtool.asp
Income Support 100 per cent and 5 per cent Quarterly Statistical Enquiry data: www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/isqse.asp
Pension Credit 5 per cent Quarterly Statistical Enquiry data: www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/pcqse.asp
Jobseeker’s Allowance 5 per cent Quarterly Statistical Enquiry data: www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/jsa_qse.asp
DWP benefit statistics are also available on the Nomis website at: www.nomisweb.co.uk/