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Commentary - Child and Working Tax Credits statistics: Provisional awards - April 2024

Published 26 June 2024

1. About this release

These statistics focus on the number of families benefiting from Child Tax Credit (CTC) and/or Working Tax Credit (WTC) in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as at 1 April 2024.

This publication presents a breakdown of families by their profile position, age and gender, type of family and family size as well as the number of children in benefiting families, broken down by age.

It also includes statistics on families benefiting from each of the different elements of tax credits and provides information on the income used in calculating awards and the frequency of payments.

1.1 What are tax credits?

Tax credits are a system of financial support for families based on their specific circumstances.

The system, introduced in 2003, forms part of wider government policy to provide support to parents returning to work, reduce child poverty and increase financial support for families. The design of the system means that as families’ circumstances change, so does (daily) entitlement to tax credits.

Tax credits are based on household circumstances and can be claimed jointly by couples or by single adults.

Entitlement is based on the following factors:

• age

• income

• hours worked

• number and age of children

• childcare costs

• disabilities

For further information about who can claim please refer to the benefits page on GOV.UK.

2. Main headlines

The number of families claiming tax credits has steadily fallen since 2011, when changes to the tax credit system were implemented.

As at April 2024, there were:

• 594,000 families claiming tax credits - this is a fall of 552,000 (48%) compared to the previous year (Figure 1)

• 1,100,000 children in tax credit claiming families - this is a fall of 1,028,000 (48%) compared to the previous year

There have also been several policy changes during this period which have impacted these figures. These are:

• Changes to the tax credit system implemented in April 2011
• Start of the Universal Credit (UC) rollout in April 2013
• The full rollout of the digital UC service across the country in December 2018
• The closure of new tax credits claims in December 2018
• The temporary WTC uplift from April 2020 to April 2021

Figure 1: Total number of families (millions) receiving CTC and WTC, from April 2009

Of the 594,000 families claiming tax credits in April 2024:

• 213,000 (36%) were claiming both CTC and WTC

• 228,000 (38%) were out-of-work and claiming CTC only

• 89,000 (15%) were in-work and claiming CTC only

• 64,000 (11%) were in-work and claiming WTC only

3. Section 1: Time series

In general, there has been a downward trend in the number of recipient families for all categories of benefits since April 2013 (Figure 2).

Between April 2013 and April 2024, the number of recipient families fell from:

• 1,885,000 to 213,000 for in-work, WTC and CTC, a decrease of 89%
• 1,481,000 to 228,000 for out-of-work, CTC only, a decrease 85%
• 858,000 to 89,000 for in-work, CTC only, a decrease of 90%
• 569,000 to 64,000 for in-work, WTC only, a decrease of 89%

The order of size of recipient categories has remained relatively constant with the largest as ‘out-of-work, CTC only’, followed by ‘in-work, WTC and CTC only’, with ‘in-work, CTC only’ as third, and then finally ‘in-work WTC only’.

Figure 2: Breakdown of the recipient families (millions) by type of credits received, from April 2013

4. Section 2: Summary of composition of tax credits

The most common type of tax credit received for singles is ‘out-of-work, CTC only’ where they make up 66% of claimants for this tax credit type. For couples, ‘in-work, WTC and CTC’ is the most common type of tax credit received. This is followed by ‘in-work, CTC only’ with these families accounting for 77% of this group. The least common tax credit type is ‘in-work, CTC only’ for singles and ‘in-work, WTC only’ for couples.

Figure 3: Number of families (thousands) by type of award and family composition, April 2024

Table 1: Data for Figure 3, number and percentage of families (thousands) by tax credit type and working status, split by family type, April 2024

Tax credit type	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
Out-of-work, CTC	152	66	77	34	228
In-work, WTC and CTC	103	49	110	51	213
In-work, CTC only	20	23	68	77	89
In-work, WTC only	33	51	31	49	64

5. Section 3: Age, sex, and children in recipient families

5.1 Age of eldest adult in recipient families

Figure 4 shows that the number of tax credit claimants increases in line with age until the 40 to 44 age group, which has a total of 119,000 families claiming tax credits. After this the number of claimants fall in line with age.

Single families make up a higher proportion of the lower age bands, with this trend reversed for ages 40 to 49 onwards.

Figure 4: Number of families (thousands) by adult age band and family composition, April 2024

Table 2: Data for Figure 4, number and percentage of families (thousands) by adult age band, split by family type, April 2024

Age	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
Under 25	0	98	0	2	0
25 to 29	10	90	1	10	12
30 to 34	35	79	9	21	45
35 to 39	61	66	31	34	91
40 to 44	65	55	54	45	119
45 to 49	53	46	61	54	114
50 to 54	40	43	53	57	94
55 to 59	21	38	35	62	56
60 to 65	11	33	22	67	33
66 and over	11	36	19	64	29

Age bands for couples are based on the age of the eldest adult.

5.2 Children in recipient families

The majority (71%) of families receiving CTC had either one or two children. Couples generally make up a higher proportion of larger families, with 70% of families with 5 or more children composed of couples, compared with 34% of 1 child families.

The distribution of children includes all children or qualifying young people in families receiving tax credits. This may not be equal to the number of children for whom the family is receiving the child element of CTC due to the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children, affecting children born after 6 April 2017 unless they are covered by an exception.

Figure 5: Number of families (thousands) receiving CTC by number of children and family composition, April 2024

Table 3: Data for Figure 5, number and percentage of families (thousands) receiving CTC by number of children, split by family type, April 2024

Number of children	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
1 child	129	66	68	34	198
2 children	91	50	91	50	181
3 children	37	39	58	61	94
4 children	13	34	25	66	38
5 or more children	6	30	13	70	19

Since new claims for tax credits ended in January 2019, the average age of children in families claiming CTC has increased. 7% of children in claiming families were under 5 in April 2024. 581,000 children in claiming families (53% of all children) were aged 10 to 15.

Figure 6: Number of children in families (thousands) receiving CTC by child age band and family composition, April 2024

Table 4: Data for Figure 6, number and percentage of children in families (thousands) receiving CTC by child age band, split by family type, April 2024

Child age	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
Under 5	39	52	35	48	74
5 to 9	113	44	147	56	260
10 to 15	262	45	319	55	581
16 and over	86	50	87	50	173
Unknown age	3	23	9	77	11
Total	503	46	596	54	1,100

5.3 Sex of adults in recipient families

Women make up the majority of single families for both out-of-work (95%) and in-work (87%) families.

Table 5: Number and percentage of single families (thousands) by family type, split by sex, April 2024

Family type	Woman	Woman (%)	Man	Man (%)	Total
Out-of-work families	144	95	8	5	152
In-work families	136	87	20	13	156

Of the 164,000 couple families with a sole worker:

• 23,000 (14%) of workers were women
• 141,000 (86%) of workers were men

There were an additional 46,000 couple families where both adults were in work.

‘Worker’ is defined here as an adult working for a minimum of 16 hours per week.

6. Section 4: Hours worked and childcare of in-work recipient families

Figure 7 shows average weekly support with childcare costs for claimant families. The costs claimed for range from under £20 to over £150 a week. Lone parents across all cost bands make up the majority for eligible childcare costs.

Figure 7: Number of families benefiting from the childcare element (thousands) by cost band, split by family composition, April 2024

Table 6: Data for Figure 7, number of families benefiting from the childcare element (thousands) by cost band, split by family composition, April 2024

Cost band	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
Under £20	4.7	59	3.3	41	8.1
£20 to £39.99	1.6	79	0.4	21	2.0
£40 to £59.99	1.2	77	0.4	23	1.6
£60 to £79.99	1.3	74	0.5	26	1.8
£80 to £99.99	2.7	77	0.8	23	3.4
£100 to £119.99	2.3	79	0.6	21	3.0
£120 to £149.99	3.1	78	0.9	22	4.0
£150 and over	1.0	76	0.3	24	1.3

In 136,000 families claiming tax credits, the main worker worked full-time (35 hours per week). The majority (74%) of these families were couples.

Of the 93,000 families where the main worker worked 16 to 23 hours, 82% were single (Figure 8).

There were an additional 12,000 couples whose combined hours exceed 30 per week and benefit from the 30-hour credit. This made a total of 65,000 single families and 159,000 couples which benefitted from the 30-hour credit.

Figure 8: Number of weekly hours (thousands) worked by main worker, April 2024

Table 7: Data for Figure 8, number and percentage of families (thousands) by weekly hours worked by main worker, split by family type, April 2024

Family type	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
16 to 23 hours	76	82	17	18	93
24 to 29 hours	16	26	45	74	61
30 to 34 hours	29	39	46	61	75
35 or more hours	35	26	101	74	136

7. Section 5: In-work families benefitting from disability elements

In April 2024 there were:

• 33,000 disabled workers benefitting from the disabled worker element
• 22,000 severely disabled adults benefitting from the severely disabled adult element
• 61,000 disabled children in families benefitting from the disabled child element, of which 24,000 benefitted from the severely disabled child element

The main data tables 5.1 to 5.4 provide more details on those in-work families benefitting from the four disability elements including the total number of disabled adults or children, the size of the benefitting families and the number of families also benefitting from other elements of tax credits.

8. Section 6: Annual incomes of in-work recipient families

The amount of tax credits a family receives depends on their level of income. Awards based on an income up to £7,955 (the income threshold for year-ending 5th April 2024) receive their maximum entitlement whereas for incomes above this amount the award is tapered (see the Child and Working Tax Credit Entitlement section for details).

The vast majority (90%) of families receiving tax credits had incomes under £30,000 (Figure 9). The most common income bracket was £10,000 to £19,999.

Figure 9: Numbers of in-work families (thousands) by range of income used to taper awards, April 2024

Table 8: Data for Figure 9, number of in-work families (thousands) by income used to taper awards, April 2024

Income	Number of families	% of families
Up to £7,955	54	15
£7,955 to £9,999	56	15
£10,000 to £19,999	151	41
£20,000 to £29,999	68	19
£30,000 to £39,999	28	8
£40,000 to £50,000	7	2
Over £50,000	1	0

9. Section 7: Type of payments to in-work families with children

Tax credit recipients can choose whether they are paid in weekly or four-weekly instalments.

Figure 10 shows that weekly CTC payments are more common than four-weekly payment cycles.

Figure 10: Numbers of in-work families (thousands) with children by payee and chosen frequency of payment, April 2024

Table 9: Data for Figure 10, number and percentage of families (thousands) by payee, split by family type, April 2024

Payee	Weekly	Weekly (%)	Four weekly	Four weekly (%)	Total
Single females	82	69	37	31	119
Single males	3	66	2	34	5
Couple female payee	78	61	50	39	127
Couple male payee	30	59	21	41	51

10. Section 8: Regional analysis of recipient families

There are detailed breakdowns of the level of support provided in each region, the numbers of families benefitting from the childcare element as well as the disabled worker element and disabled child element. Geographical splits at Local Authority Level, Westminster Parliamentary Constituency Level and Scottish Parliamentary Constituency Level can be found in the geographical tables.

11. Section 9: Transfer to UC and other claim end reasons

Most new claims for tax credits were stopped in January 2019. When a claim ends, a ‘claim end reason’ is recorded. The main reasons recorded are ‘UC Migration’ or ‘household breakdown’. Claims can end or be terminated for a range of other reasons which have been combined in this section into the ‘terminations and other group.

Figure 11 shows that since January 2019, there have been 1,722,000 tax credit recipients identified as having their tax credits claim terminated due to a move to UC. The monthly transfer to UC between May 2023 to April 2024 was between 9,000 and 88,000.

There was a higher number of transfers in April and May 2020. This was due to the impact of Covid-19.

Since January 2019, 287,000 claims have ended due to household breakdown and 2,103,000 claims have ended or been terminated for other reasons.

There were a larger number of claims terminated in autumn due to annual renewal process for tax credits and due to the start of the academic year when dependent children leave education and families are no longer eligible for tax credits.

The number of monthly transfers to Universal Credit in 2024 has accelerated due to the winding down of tax credits.

Figure 11: Cumulative total of tax credits claimants (millions) who have had their claims ended since January 2019

12. Future publication of Provisional Award Statistics

Users of these statistics should note that this is the final statistical release to include the current level of coverage. This is due to the continuing decline in the number of tax credits claimants as the rollout of Universal Credit continues.

The next statistical release is due for publication in January/February 2025, based on data from December 2024. As the number of tax credits claimants remaining by this point of time is expected to be limited, we expect to provide a high level summary of tax credits claimants, with any further breakdowns dependent on the precise size of the claimant population at that point. If you have any comments on this, please send them to the statistical contact given below.

Statistics on Universal Credit can be found here: Universal Credit statistics - GOV.UK

13. A National Statistics publication

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The United Kingdom Statistics Authority has accredited these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Accreditation can be broadly interpreted to mean that the statistics:

• meet identified user needs
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14. Contact details

14.1 Benefits and credits statistics

Media contact: HMRC Press Office

Statistical contact: L Bircham