Updated 28 September 2012
Number of people on key out of work benefits technical description
| Short title | Numbers on key out of work benefits |
|---|---|
| Technical definition |
This indicator measures the non-seasonally adjusted number of people aged 16 to State Pension age claiming:
The equalisation of State Pension age between 2010 and 2020 will change the composition of this group by including women between 60 and 64. Further rises to age 66, 67 and 68 for men and women will follow. The "Others on Income Related Benefit" category:
The remainder are on Income Support:
The groups that comprise the key-out-of-work benefits are based on the concept of Statistical Groups presenting each person by the main reason they are in contact with the Department. |
| Rationale | Reflects the Government’s economic and social objective of helping more people into employment and not dependent on the state.
Linked to welfare reform policy objectives and the development and delivery of Universal Credit and the policy objectives of the Work Programme to help more people off benefit into employment (SRP 2 – Get Britain working). |
| Formula | Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) (claimant count) – the published table includes both UK figures (seasonally adjusted) and GB figures (not seasonally adjusted) published by ONS. The indicator uses the GB, not seasonally adjusted figure for comparability with statistics for other benefits.
Employment Support Allowance (ESA), Incapacity Benefit, lone parents on Income Support (IS), others (IS others and Pension Credit) are GB figures, not seasonally adjusted. It should be remembered when using this data that the coverage of the Jobseeker’s Allowance UK seasonally adjusted figure is slightly different to that for the other key out-of-work benefits. Whereas figures for Jobseeker’s Allowance UK cover the entirety of the United Kingdom, the coverage of all other figures is all cases in Great Britain and overseas. These statistics exclude cases in Northern Ireland. Please see the Northern Ireland Department for Social Development website for information about benefits in Northern Ireland. The key out-of-work benefits shown in this table are chosen to best represent a count of all those benefit recipients who cannot be in full-time employment as part of their condition of entitlement. Those claiming solely bereavement benefits or Disability Living Allowance (DLA) are not included as these are not out-of-work or income based benefits. DLA is paid to those needing help with personal care. In addition, we exclude those claiming solely carer’s benefits or claiming carer’s benefits alongside Income Support, as the Department does not pursue active labour market policies for this group. Carer’s benefits are paid to those with full time caring responsibilities. Worked Example: |
| Start date | Data already published since February 1997 |
| Good performance | A decrease would demonstrate whether improvement has been achieved.
As this series is based upon 100% administrative data, year on year movement of any magnitude can be considered as a change in this indicator. Seasonal movements in benefit claiming patterns affect the quarterly series, hence, year on year comparisons are needed. Economic conditions will also affect the performance of the indicator |
| Behavioural impact | Focusing on reducing pure benefit numbers may reduce DWP’s concern with job entry and employment outcomes. |
| Comparability | Benefits data isn't generally compared across countries because of differences in the structure / coverage of the welfare system |
| Collection frequency | Quarterly in February, May, August and November |
| Time lag | The table is published approximately 5.5 months after the reporting point.
However, the Department also produces early estimates of the "Employment and Support Allowance and incapacity benefits" and the "lone parents on IS" groups. Whilst these estimates are missing the "others" group and are estimates rather than final National Statistics, they can provide a useful early view. |
| Data source (which data collection it comes from) | The number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance is measured using 100% administrative data from the monthly non-seasonally adjusted claimant count published by the Office for National Statistics. The number of people claiming other out of work benefits is measured using 100% administrative data from the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS) |
| Type of data (Whether it is an official statistic, national statistic, survey, MI ) | National Statistics |
| Robustness and data limitations | Data is produced in line with "quality and methods" outlined in the DWP’s Statistical Summary Quality Statement. Relates to "Get Britain working" (reducing numbers on benefit is proxy for more people in work) "welfare reform" (where overall reduction in number and spend on benefit is key measure) |
| Collecting organisation | The raw data are collected by Jobcentre Plus as part of the process for assessing and paying benefits.
The claimant count is published by the Office for National Statistics. The other benefit data are published by DWP. |
| Return format | The table is published as an Excel spreadsheet showing numbers in thousands to two decimal places (ie to the nearest 10) |
| Geographical coverage | The UK seasonally adjusted claimant count can be broken down to Government Office Region level:
All other series can be broken down to Lower Super Output Area (LSOA). This must be done separately for the two series: |
| How indicator can be broken down | The claimant count can be broken down by gender. Breakdowns by age and duration can be added by opting to remove clerical (non-computerised) claims.
Benefit data can be broken down by:
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| Further guidance | Any other relevant information: The main table is in Excel format. The further breakdowns are available as HTML and Excel downloads. |
