Working age benefits
Benefits and services for people of working age, for example Jobseeker's Allowance and Income Support, are managed by Jobcentre Plus offices.
Benefits may be available for those who are:
- Employed or looking for work
- On a low income
- Ill or injured
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provides counts of Income Support claimants. It shows breakdowns by their age, gender, duration of claim, marital status and statistical group. Each file covers the whole of Great Britain but is broken down to Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) or Ward level (2003 Statistical Wards). Data snapshots are provided every February, May, August and November. This data is available from the DWP website by selecting the link entitled Income Support data (on the right hand side of the screen).
The DWP also provides counts of Jobseekers Allowance claimants. It shows breakdowns by their age and gender. Each file covers the whole of Great Britain but is broken down to Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) or Ward level (2003 Statistical Wards). Data snapshots are provided every February, May, August and November. This data is available from the DWP website by selecting the link entitled Jobseekers Allowance data (on the right hand side of the screen).
Please note that Jobseekers Allowance statistics were revised in the May 2008 release following improvements to methodology.
The DWP also provides summary counts of working age claimants of key benefits in their Working Age Client Group (WACG) data . It shows breakdowns by their statistical group (their main reason for interacting with the benefit system), gender and age. The main advantage of this dataset is that the double counting of claimants on more than one benefit has been removed so that users will get a more accurate picture of benefit claiming and worklessness at a small area level. Each file covers the whole of Great Britain but is broken down to Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) or Ward level (2003 Statistical Wards). Data snapshots are provided every February, May, August and November. This data is available from the DWP website by selecting the link entitled Working Age Client Group benefits data (on the right hand side of the screen). A summary of this data at district level is also available below.
This page last updated: 27-01-2009