Guidance

Statistical work programme

Updated 20 December 2024

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Foreword

This publication sets out the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistical work programme. DWP is the UK’s largest public service department responsible for both policy and reporting of areas including:

• employment
• pensions
• poverty
• welfare
• benefit expenditure

The statistical work programme outlines developments to DWP Official Statistics. It reports changes delivered from April 2020 in statistical methodology and specific measures used in areas such as:

• housing
• income
• employment
• welfare

In addition, this document brings together both publication-specific and cross-departmental plans for future developments into a single programme.

The statistical work programme has been released to remain transparent about our Official Statistics, adhering to our DWP revision policy, the DWP statistics user engagement strategy and the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice.

The variety of data sources, collection techniques and statistical measures implemented by DWP is reflected in the range of future developments. These developments may be in one of several domains such as dissemination techniques, where a team may update terminology or reporting-style to improve the accessibility of publications; or could be technology-centric, involving plans to incorporate online tools such as Stat-Xplore.

DWP Official Statistics are produced and published in line with the 3 pillars of the Code of Practice for Statistics:

• Trustworthiness – by committing to the highest standards of integrity and transparency

• Quality – by regularly assessing our methodology and exploring opportunities for development and synergy between teams – hence the introduction of a Statistical Work Programme

• Value – by remaining engaged with the main users and stakeholders of DWP Official Statistics

The statistical work programme is published in line with T4.2 of the Code of Practice for Statistics to ensure that we are open and transparent about our progress towards meeting our priorities and objectives whilst ensuring users and stakeholders can help us prioritise our statistical plans.

Steve Ellerd-Elliott
Head of Profession for Statistics, Department for Work and Pensions
Email: statistics.hopsupport@dwp.gov.uk

1. Statistics at DWP

DWP analysts are committed to producing accurate, timely, high quality Official Statistics publications to inform government policy development and operational decision-making. DWP takes into account user needs and produces and disseminates its statistics in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics. DWP Official Statistics are used by a range of users, including:

• DWP Ministers
• DWP policy and operational officials
• Ministers and officials in other government departments
• Parliament
• local authorities
• external interest groups
• the media and external commentators
• academics
• charities
• members of the public

The department currently releases around 40 Official and Accredited Official Statistics series each year, as well as collaborating to support a number of cross-government publications. Further detail of types of Official Statistics is on the UK Statistics Authority website.

A full list of DWP statistical publications can be found in Annex C.

Statistical publications are announced in the GOV.UK statistics release calendar and published on the DWP statistics GOV.UK page.

The department disseminates its statistics in a variety of ways, as for any set of statistics there could be a range of users accessing the data:

• first release statistical publications include simple headline findings, text and graphs. The statistics are put into context and include footnotes and caveats. Alongside the publication, DWP publishes methodology documents which include details of the users and uses of the statistics, how data is collected and processed, the quality assurance process and provides contextual information to aid understanding of the statistics

• statistical tables provide what the department sees as the most important breakdowns meeting most user needs

• Stat-Xplore is an interactive open data tool to interrogate data where the user can build their own tables and graphs with full level of granularity available

• interactive maps and dashboards enable the user to explore and customise DWP statistics

The varied approach to disseminating statistics is in accordance with the department’s quality policy.

As well as producing and developing statistics, we also provide comprehensive briefing for ministers and policy teams and draft responses to numerous Parliamentary Questions, Freedom of Information requests and ad hoc queries.

2. Developing how we deliver DWP statistics

There are new approaches and tools available that can improve our data, processes and dissemination of statistics. This will increase efficiency, drive up quality and allow us to add more value and insight. To make this happen we are investing time and resource to take forward developments and raise capability for users inside DWP, across government and external, including academics, the media and the public.

Each development to our statistics follows a 4-stage process.

1. Stage 1: Discovery stage – user requirements for new statistics and proposed changes to existing statistics are gathered by analysts.

2. Stage 2: Internal user engagement – liaising with internal stakeholders including policy, operations and external communications and Ministers.

3. Stage 3: Public consultation – active engagement with external users on the change

4. Stage 4: Publication – approved changes are confirmed with users.

We have 4 priority areas for cross-departmental development:

• user engagement
• reproducible analytical pipelines
• devolution
• linking survey administrative data

2.1. User Engagement

DWP is aware of the importance and the need to engage with its users and has utilised expert advice from the Government Statistical Service (GSS) to support this engagement.

Within DWP, user engagement is used to:

• prioritise statistical work, for example to consider whether to produce new statistics to meet identified information gaps; continue, discontinue or adapt existing statistical series
• understand and refresh our understanding of the use and potential use of DWP statistics and data
• understand user satisfaction with the relevance and usefulness of our statistics
• maximise the use of our statistics

This is in line with the User Engagement Strategy for Statistics released by the GSS and the DWP User Engagement Strategy.

The 3 goals of the strategy are to:

1. Collaborate across boundaries to offer a more coherent user experience.

2. Build capability and equip producers of statistics with the practical skills and tools to deliver effective user engagement activities.

3. Strengthen our culture and ensure user engagement is always an ongoing and essential part of a statistics producers role.

Alongside the strategy, the Code of Practice for Statistics states:

Users of statistics and data should be at the centre of statistical production; their needs should be understood, their views sought and acted upon, and their use of statistics supported.

Currently DWP has multiple products that enhance its user engagement.

• Stat-Xplore is DWP’s open data tool, providing a guided way to explore benefit related data sets for over 7,000 users, spanning a range of subject areas and statistical reports now up to 25 – and growing
• The visualisation dashboards, our web applications, which we use to gather experience and delve into innovative ways to explore and visualise the data sets of our major statistical publications
• User consultations to seek up to date feedback on our statistical products. For example, DWP held a consultation in 2019 with users of a number of their statistical publications, so as to gauge the value of the current frequency of releases
• Active engagement through publication team in-boxes and statistician lead contacts. Details of how to contact each publication team are found on each publication. In each publication, DWP asks for feedback from the user
• The Family Finance Surveys User Conference is held every year. It offers users of survey publications a chance to connect with DWP and Office for National Statistics (ONS) colleagues, and also to share great ideas on how the various official publications can be used.  The conference is one of the main avenues by which DWP and ONS communicate the latest developments in our statistics.
• In 2024, the conference was run on a virtual basis.  Around 100 people attended.  Attendees came from a wide range of sectors, including academic institutions, think tanks, and local and central government.

DWP is always striving to improve user engagement and has projects in development to meet that objective.

These projects are detailed in the following sections.

2.2. Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP)

Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP) use code to improve the underlying processes that produce statistics, so that the same statistical outputs are produced in a more robust way. While the implementation of RAP is a major change, the analytical outputs themselves remain unchanged, with the same content, coverage, appearance, formatting, timing and scheduling.

The implementation of RAP to the underlying processes has a range of benefits, as outlined in the Reproducible Analytical Pipelines strategy:

• it improves the quality of the analysis, by reducing human error
• it makes quality assurance easier
• it makes the process more efficient
• it ultimately improves trust in our statistics

DWP is committed to implementing RAP, wherever it adds value, throughout our analytical community. Our strategy is that DWP’s published statistics will lead the way in implementation of RAP within the department, with the aim of publishing our first statistical publication using end-to-end RAP processes in 2025. We do not yet have access to the tools required to do this so have extended our target to deliver this into 2025 but, in the meantime, we are working to introduce aspects of RAP principles using our existing tools and published a statistics publication and tables using elements of RAP principles in August 2023. Once the tools are available, we will roll out RAP across our other published statistics and, where appropriate, to other analysis in DWP.

To do this, we must address a range of barriers, including those identified in the RAP strategy:

• tools
• capability
• culture

In terms of tools, there are various technological barriers to overcome. These barriers are especially significant in DWP, for two main reasons:

• first, our analytical community is large, which means the tools need to be scalable and cloud-ready

• second, our statistical products use claimant data, so we must be certain both that the data is secure and the tools use this data securely

We must also consider the balance between cost-effectiveness and the benefits of using open-source software, especially given the potential cost of external support contracts. Our implementation of RAP will take longer due to these factors.

In terms of capability, we have already begun to upskill analysts in software engineering techniques, open-source programming languages and wider knowledge of the benefits of RAP. This is a large endeavour, especially given the size of our analytical community, since people will need to learn new skills while continuing to deliver a high volume of existing work. In the early stages, upskilling is likely to be sequential, as the team supporting the roll-out work with one statistical team at a time to convert their publication to RAP. In the longer term, with the skillset required being common not only within different areas of DWP, but also across different departments, we hope that analysts will upskill and maintain those skills themselves and support the upskilling and sharing of skills with each other.

Because it is important that RAP skills align with wider analytical skills, we will deliver RAP capability as part of our wider strategy around analytical capability. We will follow the RAP strategy in prioritising “just-in-time” learning: that is, training analysts in RAP when the skills are needed in their area. This helps analysts to retain new skills, since the training is closely followed by hands-on development, as they implement RAP processes in their work, followed by ongoing continued usage.

In terms of culture, we have already begun to build RAP awareness and capability within our statistical community, through a range of methods including centralised communications and training both in high-level principles and specific skills. RAP appears as one of five priorities within our published statistical work programme and we have ensured it is considered in other areas of statistical development, such as our internal guidance on accessibility. As RAP rolls out across the analytical community, our Senior Analytical Leadership Team will lead in building interest and engagement in RAP, championing and emphasising the benefits of RAP as the default way to produce analysis.

The senior sponsor for Reproducible Analytical Pipelines for analysis within DWP is the Chief Analyst, Trevor Huddleston, and the sponsor for RAP within statistics is the Chief Statistician, Steve Ellerd-Elliott.

2.3. Devolution

The Scotland Act 2016 received Royal Assent in March 2016. The Social Security (Scotland) Bill received Royal Assent on 1 June 2018. As a result, legislative and delivery powers are being devolved to the Scottish Government in several areas.

The transfer of benefits to the Scottish Government will impact on the Official Statistics that DWP produce. Official Statistics impacted include:

• Carer’s Allowance
• Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
• Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
• Attendance Allowance (AA)
• Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA)
• Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB)
• Benefit Combinations
• Cold Weather Payments
• Winter Fuel Payment
• Alternative Claimant Count
• Children in Low Income Families

From September 2018, recipients of Carer’s Allowance who live in Scotland have been eligible for Carer’s Allowance Supplement, which will raise their Carer’s Allowance to the equivalent of the current rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance for 25 and over. Carer’s Allowance Supplement payments are paid twice a year to people who are in receipt of Carer’s Allowance on the Carer’s Allowance Supplement eligibility dates set by the Scottish Government (April and October). Social Security Scotland have published information on recipients of Carer’s Allowance Supplement. DWP will continue to publish the same Carer’s Allowance statistics as we do currently that cover the whole of Great Britain.

From 1 April 2020, the Scottish Government became responsible for disability and industrial injury benefits for people living in Scotland. DWP will however continue to deliver these benefits on behalf of Scottish Government, on the same basis as prior to 1 April 2020, until the Scottish Government introduces its own replacement benefits. This will happen in the next few years but with some delay due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on Scottish Government plans for the transfer.

Child Disability Payment is the first of the application-based disability benefits to be introduced by the Scottish Government. It replaces Disability Living Allowance for children that was administered by DWP. From 26 July 2021, new applications were taken in Scotland for Child Disability Payment for children under 16 that live in the pilot areas of Dundee City, Na h-Eileanan Siar and Perth and Kinross. On 22 November 2021, Child Disability Payment launched nationwide to all new applicants living in Scotland.

The Disability Living Allowance figures presented to the end of August 2021 overlapped with the launch of Child Disability Payment in the pilot areas in Scotland detailed above. This overlap accounts for approximately 5 weeks where new applications for Child Disability Payment in these areas were taken. Data on applications and payments made for this time period is available. Due to the short time period and limited areas that applicants could apply from, the number of applications received were small and have had a very limited impact on Disability Living Allowance for child numbers. From August 2022, DWP will present totals for England and Wales, where DWP is retaining policy ownership, and a separate breakdown for Scotland where we are administering claims on behalf of the Scottish Government.

Adult Disability Payment is the second of the application-based disability benefits to be introduced by the Scottish Government. It replaces Personal Independence Payment that was administered by DWP. From 21 March 2022, new applications were taken in Scotland for Adult Disability Payment for those who live in the pilot areas of Dundee City, Na h-Eileanan Siar and Perth and Kinross. Adult Disability Payment has launched nationwide to all new applicants living in Scotland from August 2022.

The Personal Independence Payment figures presented to the end of April 2022 overlaps with the launch of Adult Disability Payment in the pilot areas in Scotland detailed above. This overlap accounts for approximately 6 weeks where new applications for Adult Disability Payment in these areas were taken. Data on applications and payment made for this time period is available. Due to the short time period and limited areas that applicants could apply from, the number of applications received were small and have had a very limited impact on Personal Independence Payment numbers. From September 2022, DWP has presented totals for England and Wales, where DWP is retaining policy ownership, and a separate breakdown for Scotland where we are administering claims on behalf of the Scottish Government. Further information on the presentation of DLA and PIP can be found on the DWP Benefit Statistics page.

Scottish Devolution will also impact the fraud and error in the benefit system publication. Existing publications include data from Scotland; however, the volume of data does not allow for breakdown of results any more granular than at the GB-level. The publication does not include the Scottish Government Carer’s Allowance supplement.

DWP will need to vary its approach for the presentation of disability statistics, as administration of some caseloads moves from DWP to the Scottish Government.

2.4. Linking survey and administrative data

With changes introduced by General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, we can now link all respondents on the basis that the processing is necessary for the department to carry out its functions as a public body (GDPR Article 6(1)(e)).

This opened the opportunity to transform the department’s survey analysis through the integration of administrative data. The first step was to develop a robust data linking approach which delivers a high rate of good quality matches. The approach needs to be repeatable for future implementation into routine processing.

This change, together with improvements in our linking methodology, means that we can now link at least 95% of Family Resources Survey (FRS) respondents to their administrative records.

In line with the DWP Digital data strategy, the department is committed to transforming its surveys by linking administrative data from the full range of available sources (for example, from other government departments).

DWP has established an Expert Advisory Group on Survey-based Income Statistics to support its development work. The purpose of the Group is to provide advice to the Chief Statistician on:

• plans to implement the integration of administrative data into the FRS and related outputs

• other technical issues as they arise

Members of the Group include key users of the FRS and related outputs including academic experts, users from third-sector organisations and methodology input from the Office for National Statistics.

A technical report on FRS transformation, with illustrative results for DWP benefits, was published in March 2024. Our development work will be continuing so we plan to follow this up, with further results using HMRC PAYE and Self-Assessment data, and other administrative sources, during 2024 to 2025. Our intention is to include details on how the use of administrative data might affect Households Below Average Income (HBAI)  low-income estimates.

3. Confirmed changes coming to statistics

The following changes have been announced publicly and are summarised in the following table. Please see the relevant statistics release for more details.

Publication	Details of development	User requirement	Date
Below Average Resources (BAR)	Release of 2022/23 update to Official Statistics in development and statistical consultation response on developing new statistics based on the Social Metrics Commission approach poverty measure.	DWP sought user feedback on the new poverty measure through an analytical consultation running from 18 January to 11 April 2024. The consultation response was initially planned for publication in July but was postponed in line with pre-election guidance.	23 January 2025. This was announced in December.
Children in Low Income Families (CILIF)	The next release of these Official Statistics will calibrate figures to HBAI single-year UK estimates (not regional estimates) and impute receipt of Scottish Child Payments for eligible households, so it is included as an income stream. Consequently, there will be revisions to the back-series at UK, regional and local area level. Alongside this, we plan to publish a paper on proposals for developing After Housing Costs measures of local area child poverty statistics and will be seeking users’ views. Comments and feedback from users are welcome by emailing stats.consultation-2018@dwp.gov.uk.	Supports users’ requirements including feedback from a range of local area users.	March 2025. A message to users was added to the Children in low income families: local area statistics – collection page.

4. Under development

We are undertaking external user engagement on the following changes. The changes are summarised in the following table, with more detail available in the relevant statistical release.

Publication	Future developments	User requirement
Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment (UC WCA)	Proposed developments are included in a release strategy. Phase 3: ● number of UC WCA mandatory reconsiderations registrations and clearances ●outcome of UC WCA mandatory reconsiderations ●ethnicity breakdowns Phase 4: ● number of UC WCA appeals by stage of process and outcome ● UC WCA clearance times	The release of this information also addresses the gap highlighted through Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) correspondence.
Benefit sanctions statistics	Once the level of ethnicity declarations in relation to the sanction rate reaches the minimum 70% threshold, we will extend the existing ethnicity breakdowns to include sanction rates by ethnicity. This will include comparisons of outcomes and the statistical significance of comparisons. For more information please see the last Benefit sanctions statistics release.	Multiple queries relating to benefit sanction statistics broken down by ethnicity.
Family Resources Survey (FRS) 2023 to 2024	Questionnaire changes approved in questionnaire consultation. Four changes on specific topics were approved and implemented in the FRS 2023 to 2024 questionnaire following the annual questionnaire consultation exercise. For more information please see the FRS Release Strategy.	These focus on specific topics to improve the understanding of respondents’ circumstances, improve data quality through better informed data processing decisions, and to collect information to support future policy analysis. These questions are expected to produce useful data that can be delivered to users through additional variables on the FRS 2023 to 2024 dataset immediately after publication in March 2025.
Family Resources Survey (FRS) 2023 to 2024	Inclusion of Cost-of-Living payments in FRS income-based variables. For more information please see the FRS Release Strategy.	In November 2022 the Government announced additional support to families with several cost-of-living support schemes, from Spring 2023, depending on family circumstances. The FRS will include these payments within the relevant income variables on the FRS dataset. Therefore, any derived variables used within the calculation of benefit unit and household income will include these amounts as appropriate. These variables will then be used in other FRS-based publications for publication in March 2025.
Family Resources Survey (FRS) 2023 to 2024	Review of material deprivation measures. For more information please see the FRS Release Strategy.	DWP, in partnership with researchers at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), has conducted a review of the material deprivation measures and the associated questions in the FRS. This review aimed to keep the material deprivation measures as relevant as possible, and be consistent with the principles of public value, quality and trustworthiness, as set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics. The first results based on the new questions are expected to be published in Households Below Average Income (HBAI) in March 2025.
Family Resources Survey (FRS) 2023 to 2024	Use of 2021 Census outputs for grossing the FRS sample. For more information please see the FRS release strategy.	We expect to receive UK population and private household estimates based on the 2021 Census (2022 for Scotland) later in 2024. A back series of grossing factors from FYE 2013 will be produced to re-base the FRS estimates from that year onwards. These plans will affect all FRS-based statistics.
Family Resources Survey (FRS) 2024 to 2025	Questionnaire changes approved in questionnaire consultation. Five changes on specific topics were approved and implemented in the FRS 2024 to 2025 questionnaire following the annual questionnaire consultation exercise. For more information please see the release strategy.	These questions are expected to produce useful data that can be delivered to users through additional variables on the FRS 2024 to 2025 dataset immediately after publication in March 2026. New variables are subject to rigorous quality assurance processes before being released.
Family Resources Survey (FRS)	Adjustment to the bands used for publication of amounts of savings and investment.	The same approach has now been applied, in the 2022 to 2023 publication, to the bands used for levels of savings and investments. Tables 7.9, 7.10, 7.11 and 7.12 have been published, as two variations. Those with suffix ‘a’ show the original savings bands, while those with suffix ‘b’ show the revised bands; to allow consistency for users. We are investigating whether to add the revised bands to the 2021 to 2022 dataset and what to show in future published tables.
Universal Credit	Undertake a Universal Credit Caseload Methodology review.	The policies, complex source data and methodologies used to create Universal Credit statistics has changed over a ten-year period, resulting in some inherent differences across different Universal Credit statistical series and information sources. Details of development are included in published release strategy.
Universal Credit	Extending Official Statistics to include protected characteristics information about Universal Credit Claimants. This includes religion, sexual orientation, and marital status.	Interest from a wide range of users. Further information can be found in the release strategy.
Child Maintenance Service	Publishing data on Stat-Xplore.	Move from static ODS tables to the flexible dissemination tool. The development was announced in section 11 of the Child Maintenance Service statistics release.
Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up	A composite measure to assess Universal Credit and income related legacy benefit take-up.	This new composite measure would allow the department to understand working-age take-up during this period. Further information can be found in the release strategy.
Income Dynamics	Extending age categories for working-age adults to include the over 65s.	This follows rises in the State Pension Age (SPa), meaning that an increasing number of working-age adults are now over 65. These individuals are no longer being included as pensioners and need therefore to be categorised elsewhere as and when numbers allow (the size of the group will only increase over time). Further information can be found in the background and methodology report.
Work and Health Programme statistics	Pioneer statistics - further breakdowns on first earnings from employment and 6-month job outcomes measures for Pioneer to be published in future releases	Interest from a wide range of users. Details of development included in the August release.

5. New Official Statistics in development

These are user requirements that have been proposed for new statistics. These are not being developed at this time but this section provides an overview of the proposal, the user requirement this would meet and the status.

Proposal	User requirement
Develop new statistics on Jobcentre Plus Midlife MOT	To ensure equality of access to information on the Jobcentre Plus Midlife MOT and meet user needs.

6. Quality of our statistics

The following publications are experiencing delays or suspensions.

Publication	Details
Benefit Cap statistics	Information on the age of youngest child for capped Housing Benefit households continues to be suspended for the latest release of the Benefit Cap statistics. This is due to an issue with the quality of the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) statistical Child Benefit data, which is still being investigated. This issue only affects the Benefit Cap statistics and no other DWP statistical releases. Find more information in the Benefit Cap collection page.
Benefit sanctions statistics	Jobcentre Plus geographical breakdowns for JSA, ESA (WRAG) and IS sanction decisions statistics – usually available on Stat-Xplore – were suspended due to data processing issues. Find more information in the sanctions collection page.
DWP Benefits Statistics	Housing Benefit: Labelling issues were identified in the Passported Benefit Status field for some Local Authorities, between September 2023 and February 2024. This is a data tabulation error in the administrative system used by Local Authorities. As a result, the field has been suppressed while we review this. Other fields, including overall totals and actual claims, are not affected. Housing Benefit: Data covering the period from October 2023 onwards are affected by an interruption in the supply of data from Na h-Eileanan Siar (Western Isles) Council. As a result of a criminal cyber-attack, Na h-Eileanan Siar Council is unable to supply DWP with Housing Benefit data until further notice. Until the data supply is restored, HB statistics that cover Na h-Eileanan Siar Council will be derived from earlier data using a standard data cleaning approach utilised previously for other cyber-attacks. Find more information in the DWP benefits statistics.
Economic labour market status of individuals aged 50 and over	Due to the ongoing challenges with response rates and levels, LFS-based labour market statistics will be badged as Official Statistics in Development until further review. This is in line with the letter from the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). Please see latest release for more information.
Family Resources Survey (FRS)	Issue with the variable EDUCQUAL. This variable is used to present estimates of household food security status and household food bank usage, by educational attainment of head of household. These estimates were not available in March 2024 publication. Two breakdowns included in tables 9.5 and 9.16 were not published and the breakdown has been removed from Stat Xplore. Find more information in the FRS collection page.
Households below average income	Issue with the Family Resources Survey variable EDUCQUAL. This variable is used to present estimates of low income for working age adults split by level of educational attainment. These estimates were not available in the March 2024 publication, affecting the following tables: ● 5_3b_BHC ● 5_3db_AHC ● 5_6db ● 5_9db This breakdown has been removed from Stat Xplore. Find more information in Households below average income (HBAI) statistics.
Maternity Allowance	Suspension of Maternity Allowance statistics from the August 2024 statistical release. Please see the Maternity Allowance latest release for more details
Parental conflict Indicator	The Parental conflict Indicator Statistics for 2022 were due to be published in March 2024. A decision has been taken to suspend publication of these statistics pending further investigation. This is because the most recent update has produced some irregular results. We plan to conduct further analysis and review our methodology before publishing. Find more information on the Parental conflict indicator collection page.
Universal Credit	Universal Credit Claims and Starts breakdowns by postcode are no longer available from April 2022 onwards due to missing geography data. Please see the Universal Credit latest release for more details

7. Feedback

We welcome your views on our statistical work programme. We would encourage users to engage directly with the publication teams for any comments on specific developments. For any feedback on our cross-cutting developments and the statistical work programme more generally, please email statistics.hopsupport@dwp.gov.uk.

8. Annex A: Statistical reviews and developments

In addition to our cross-cutting development work on how we deliver statistics, and the changes we are making to our statistical publications, we are also involved in responding to feedback from external reviews and have other statistical development work which forms part of our statistical work programme.

Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) review of income-based poverty statistics

The OSR published its review of Income-based poverty statistics on 19 May 2021. The report includes 20 recommendations.

A number of recommendations relate to improved guidance in our publications. These are:

• producers should look to provide clearer and more detailed signposting to other income-based poverty statistics in their publications
• producers should ensure supporting guidance is accessible to lay users and clear on the appropriate uses and quality of the statistics
• producers should consider the helpfulness of the language used in the poverty publications and accompanying guidance, to ensure that it does not risk confusing or misleading less-experienced users
• DWP and ONS should ensure they are clear about the strengths and limitations of household surveys, particularly with regards to missing groups, and clearly set out the implicit and explicit assumptions that underline them
• producers should do more to draw out the necessary insights to allow users to understand the nature of poverty and how this varies between groups at differing levels of poverty, as identified above

We will take these on board in future publications and started from the annual publications in March 2022.

A number of recommendations relate to developments in the use of integrated survey and administrative data. These are:

• the strategic recommendation that innovation is needed for the statistics to deliver their full potential and serve the public good – opportunities for data linkage should be maximised and data gaps should be addressed, building on work already underway in the GSS to explore the use of administrative data and its integration with social surveys
• DWP and ONS, building on existing work to explore the feasibility and potential of social survey and administrative data integration, should explore whether integration can help improve the timeliness and robustness of income-based poverty statistics
• DWP and ONS should prioritise work to address under-reporting at the bottom end of the income distribution – they should consider a multifaceted approach to solving this problem, such as data linkage and making greater use of administrative data

Our existing long-term work programme developing integrated survey-administrative datasets (see section 2.5) will meet the aims of these objectives in the future. We have published a technical report which includes illustrative results to show the combined positive effects of replacing survey responses with administrative records, imputation for unlinked respondents, and revised grossing on FRS estimates. We welcome feedback. Please contact frs.transformation@DWP.GOV.UK. Our development work continues.

From March 2022, some recommendations have been included in the following publications:

• Family Resources Survey
• Households Below Average Income
• Income Dynamics

Family Resources Survey (FRS)

We are proceeding from April 2024 with a fieldwork target of achieving 20,000 households.

9. Annex B: Changes delivered since April 2020

To continue to meet user needs we regularly review our releases to look at the existing content as well as opportunities from new data and new or emerging user requirements. 

A list of the changes made to DWP statistics since April 2020 is published separately. 

Read the list of changes made since April 2020.

10. Annex C: DWP statistical releases

List of all current publications, frequency of publication and designation (Official Statistics in Development, Official or Accredited Official Statistics).

Benefit statistics

Publication	Frequency	Designation	Summary
DWP Benefit statistics	Quarterly	Accredited Official Statistics and Official Statistics	This report is a summary about the main benefits administered by DWP, including: ● Attendance Allowance (AA) ● Benefit Combinations ● Bereavement Benefit (BB) ● Bereavement Support Benefit (BSB) ● Carer’s Allowance (CA) ● Disability Living Allowance (DLA) ● Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) ● Housing Benefit (HB) ● HB flows ● Incapacity Benefit (IB) ● Income Support (IS) ● Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) ● Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) ● Pension Credit (PC) ● Personal Independence Payment (PIP) ● Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) ● State Pension (SP) ● Universal Credit (UC) ● Widow’s Benefit (WB) We also publish Official Statistics on Maternity Allowance (MA) on a quarterly basis via data tables
Benefit Combinations	Quarterly	Official Statistics	The Benefit Combination statistics offer a picture of the number of individuals claiming at least one benefit as well as the number of claimants for each combination of benefits.

Children, Families and Bereavement

Publication	Frequency	Designation	Summary
Child Maintenance Service statistics	Quarterly	Official	Statistics on cases processed under the 2012 statutory child maintenance scheme.
Children in low income families: local area statistics	Annual	Official	Statistics on number and percentage of children living in relative and absolute low income families.
Separated Families Population Statistics	Annual	Official Statistics	Estimates of the separated families’ population and their child maintenance arrangements. Analysis also shows separated families with no arrangement.

Employment Support Schemes

Publication	Frequency	Designation	Summary
Access to Work statistics Recipients	Annual	Official statistics in development	Statistics on the number of people who had Access to Work provision approved.
Restart Scheme statistics	Bi-annual	Official statistics in development	Statistics on the Restart Scheme.
Work and Health Programme statistics	Quarterly	Official	Statistics on people referred to and starting on the Work and Health Programme.

Health, Disability and Care

Publication	Frequency	Designation	Summary
Employment and Support Allowance (ESA): Outcomes of Work Capability Assessment	Quarterly	Accredited Official Statistics	Work Capability Assessment outcomes for new ESA claims and incapacity benefits claims converted to ESA.
The employment of disabled people	Annual	Official	Detailed analysis and break downs of the number of disabled people in employment.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) statistics	Quarterly	Official	Includes number of claims in payment, new claim registrations, decisions and awards made.

Housing and Heating

Publication	Frequency	Designation	Summary
Social Fund Cold Weather Payments	Weekly	Official	Estimated number of Cold Weather Payments and total amounts paid.
Discretionary Housing Payments statistics	Biannual	Official	Statistics on local authorities’ use of Discretionary Housing Payment funds.
Housing Benefit Debt Recoveries	Biannual	Accredited Official Statistics	Data on incorrectly overpaid Housing Benefit (formerly HB recoveries and fraud).
Housing Benefit: statistics on Speed of processing	Quarterly	Official	Measure of the average time it takes to process a new claim or a change in circumstance of an existing claimant.
Support for Mortgage Interest statistics	Quarterly	Official statistics in development	The number of households who are currently in receipt of the support as well as the number who have received Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans so far.
Winter Fuel Payment statistics	Annual	Official	Includes recipient and household data, and payments in EEA countries and Switzerland.

Income and Living Standards

Publication	Frequency	Designation	Summary
Family Resources Survey	Annual	Accredited Official Statistics	Facts and figures about the incomes and living circumstances of households and families in the UK.
Households below average income (HBAI) statistics	Annual	Accredited Official Statistics	Number and percentage of people living in low-income households in the UK.
Income dynamics	Annual	Official	Data on changes in incomes in the UK including a measure of the extent to which people experience persistently low income.
Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up	Annual	Official	Estimates of the take-up of the main income-related benefits in Great Britain.
Below Average Resources	Annual	Official Statistics in Development	Statistics in development and a statistical consultation on developing new statistics based on the Social Metrics Commission approach to poverty.

Pensions and Older People

Publication	Frequency	Designation	Summary
Pensioners’ Incomes statistics	Annual	Accredited Official Statistics	Annual statistics on pensioners’ incomes.
Workplace pension participation and saving trends statistics	Annual	Official	Workplace participation and saving trends, and estimates of the future impacts of automatic enrolment in them.

Spending, Fraud and Error

Publication	Frequency	Designation	Summary
Abstract of DWP Benefit Rate Statistics	Annual	Accredited Official Statistics	Statistics on benefits, National Insurance contributions and indices of prices and earnings in Great Britain.
Benefit Cap statistics	Quarterly	Official (with Official statistics in development on UC)	Statistics on households affected by the benefit cap.
Fraud and Error in the Benefit System	Annual	Accredited Official Statistics	Estimates of fraud and error levels in the benefit system in Great Britain.
Unfulfilled eligibility in the benefit system	Annual	Official Statistics in Development	Estimates of unfulfilled eligibility levels in the benefit system in Great Britain

Work and Unemployment

Publication	Frequency	Designation	Summary
Benefit Sanctions statistics	Quarterly	Official	Number of sanctions imposed on people who receive Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, or Universal Credit.
Economic labour market status of individuals aged 50 and over	Annual	Official	Statistics on the economic labour market status of individuals aged 50 and over.
National Insurance Number Allocations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK	Quarterly, and annual for statistics including nationality	Accredited Official Statistics	National Insurance number allocations by nationality at point of NINo registration of DWP benefit recipients.
Universal Credit statistics	Monthly (people) Quarterly (claims, starts & households)	Official	Number of people and households on Universal Credit (UC). Statistics on UC deductions. Statistics on UC childcare element.
Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit claimants: statistics related to the policy to provide support for a maximum of 2 children	Annual	Official	Statistics related to Child Tax Credit and Universal Credit policy to provide support for a maximum of two children.
Universal Credit Work Capability Assessments statistics	Quarterly	Official	Statistics on the number of people on UC WCA by stage of process and monthly decisions and outcomes.
Move to Universal Credit statistics	Quarterly	Official statistics in development	Statistics on the number of people who have been sent managed migration notices inviting them to claim Universal Credit.