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Personal tax credits statistics

This section contains summary statistics about individuals and households claiming Working Tax Credits and/or Child Tax Credits.

The publications include numbers benefiting from individual elements such as childcare and disability, average entitlements, and income band breakdowns. There are also publications on tax credits take-up rates, rates of error and fraud, and children in low income families.

About personal tax credits

Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Working Tax Credit (WTC) replaced Working Families’ Tax Credit, Disabled Person’s Tax Credit and Children’s Tax Credit in April 2003.

Tax credits were based on household circumstances and could be claimed jointly by members of a couple, or by singles. Entitlement was based on factors such as age, income, hours worked, number and age of children, childcare costs and disabilities.

Tax credits ended on 5 April 2025.

Find out more about the eligibility for Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit.

Provisional awards versus finalised awards

It is important to note that finalised awards statistics are not a revision of the provisional awards statistics.

Please see either publication for more details.

Child and Working Tax Credits: finalised awards publications

The finalised awards are based on a full retrospective view of each tax credits claim in a given financial year and provide statistics on the average caseload position over the full year. The statistics are therefore not available until after the finalisation process and are published around 12 months after the end of the entitlement year in question. These statistics:

  • are more useful to those looking for the final end-of-year position

  • provide details of total and average entitlements

Previous finalised awards publications are available.

Please note that the ‘Child and Working Tax Credits statistics: Finalised Annual Awards – 2020 to 2021’ encompasses the main publication and geographical component seen in ‘Personal tax credits: finalised award statistics – geographical statistics 2018 to 2019’.

Child and Working Tax Credits: finalised awards publications, supplement on payments

Previous supplement on payments finalised awards publications are available.

Provisional awards publications

The provisional awards provide estimates of the size and composition of the tax credits population at a snapshot date in early April and December each year.

These statistics give the most up-to-date picture but may not align exactly with the finalised data.

Previous provisional publications are also available.

Geographical awards publications

Previous geographical statistics and small area data publications are available.

Other official statistics

Previous error and fraud publications are also available.

Previous publications about universal credit and child tax credit statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of 2 children are also available.

Feedback and bespoke analysis

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is committed to improving the official statistics they publish. HMRC would welcome any views you have by email to benefitsandcredits.analysis@hmrc.gov.uk .

We also offer bespoke analysis of tax credits data, although there may be a charge depending on the level of complexity and the resources required to produce.

If you would like to discuss your requirements, to comment on the current publications, or for further information about the tax credits statistics please contact us.

You can read more about our work, policies and procedures at the Statistics at HMRC page linked below.