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

Published 28 February 2025

About this release

These statistics focus on the number of families benefitting from Child Tax Credit (CTC) and/or Working Tax Credit (WTC) in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as at 1 December 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 benefitting families, broken down by age.

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

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.

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 December 2024, there were:

• 91,000 families claiming tax credits - this is a fall of 782,000 (90%) compared to the previous year (Figure 1)

• 140,000 children in tax credit claiming families - this is a fall of 1,475,000 (91%) 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
• the 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 December 2009

Of the 91,000 families claiming tax credits in December 2024:

• 23,000 (26%) were in-work and claiming both CTC and WTC

• 37,000 (41%) were out-of-work and claiming CTC only

• 9,000 (10%) were in-work and claiming CTC only

• 21,000 (24%) were in-work and claiming WTC only

Section 1: Time series

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

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

• 1,865,000 to 23,000 for in-work, WTC and CTC, a decrease of 99%
• 1,389,000 to 37,000 for out-of-work, CTC only, a decrease 97%
• 829,000 to 9,000 for in-work, CTC only, a decrease of 99%
• 543,000 to 21,000 for in-work, WTC only, a decrease of 96%

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, WTC only’ as third, and then finally ‘in-work CTC only’.

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

Section 2: Summary of composition of tax credits

The most common type of tax credit received by singles is ‘out-of-work, CTC’ where they make up 59% of claimants for this tax credit type. For couples, ‘in-work, WTC and CTC’ is the most common type of tax credit received, with these families accounting for 70% of this group. The least common tax credit type is ‘in-work, CTC only’ for both singles and couples.

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

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

Tax credit type	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
Out-of-work, CTC	22	59	15	41	37
In-work, WTC and CTC	7	30	16	70	23
In-work, CTC only	1	15	8	85	9
In-work, WTC only	9	42	12	58	21

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

Age of eldest adult in recipient families

Figure 4 shows that the number of tax credit claimants increases in line with age until the 45 to 49 age group, which has a total of 15,000 families claiming tax credits. After this the number of claimants fall in line with age until the 66 and over age group, which has a total of 28,000 families claiming tax credits.

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, December 2024

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

Age	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
Under 25	[low]	91	[low]	9	[low]
25 to 29	1	89	0.2	11	1
30 to 34	4	77	1	23	5
35 to 39	7	64	4	36	11
40 to 44	7	50	7	50	15
45 to 49	6	40	9	60	15
50 to 54	4	35	8	65	13
55 to 59	3	30	6	70	8
60 to 65	1	25	4	75	6
66 and over	5	31	11	69	16

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

Children in recipient families

The majority (74%) of families receiving CTC had either one or two children. Couples generally make up a higher proportion of larger families, with 79% of families with 5 or more children composed of couples, compared with 46% 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, December 2024

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

Number of children	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
1 child	15	54	13	46	28
2 children	10	42	13	58	23
3 children	4	33	8	67	11
4 children	1	28	3	72	5
5 or more children	1	21	2	79	2

Since new claims for tax credits ended in January 2019, the average age of children in families claiming CTC has increased. 6% of children in claiming families were under 5 in December 2024. 74,000 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, December 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, December 2024

Child age	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
Under 5	4	45	5	55	8
5 to 9	12	38	20	62	32
10 to 15	28	38	46	62	74
16 and over	10	41	15	59	25
Unknown age	0.3	16	1	84	2
Total	54	38	86	62	140

Sex of adults in recipient families

Women make up the majority of single families for both out-of-work (93%) and in-work (69%) families.

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

Family type	Woman	Woman (%)	Man	Man (%)	Total
Out-of-work families	21	93	1	7	22
In-work families	12	69	5	31	17

Of the 30,000 couple families with a sole worker:

• 6,000 (19%) of workers were women
• 24,000 (81%) of workers were men

There were an additional 6,000 couple families where both adults were in work.

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

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

Figure 7 shows the 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 benefitting from the childcare element (thousands) by cost band, split by family composition, December 2024

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

Cost band	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
Under £20	0.5	47	0.6	53	1.1
£20 to £39.99	0.1	72	0.1	28	0.2
£40 to £59.99	0.2	71	0.1	29	0.3
£60 to £79.99	0.1	67	[low]	33	0.1
£80 to £99.99	0.1	70	[low]	30	0.1
£100 to £119.99	0.2	64	0.1	36	0.2
£120 to £149.99	0.1	68	[low]	32	0.1
£150 and over	0.2	76	0.1	24	0.3

21,000 families claiming tax credits had the main worker working full-time (35 hours per week). The majority (77%) of these families were couples.

Of the 12,000 families where the main worker worked 16 to 23 hours, 65% were single (Figure 8).

There were an additional 2,000 couples whose combined hours exceed 30 per week and benefit from the 30-hour credit. In total, there were 9,000 single families and 27,000 couple families who benefitted from the 30-hour credit.

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

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

Family type	Singles	Singles (%)	Couples	Couples (%)	Total
16 to 23 hours	7	65	4	35	12
24 to 29 hours	1	17	7	83	8
30 to 34 hours	4	29	9	71	12
35 or more hours	5	23	16	77	21

Section 5: In-work families benefitting from disability elements

In December 2024 there were:

• 9,000 disabled workers benefitting from the disabled worker element
• 9,000 severely disabled adults benefitting from the severely disabled adult element
• 7,000 disabled children in families benefitting from the disabled child element, of which 3,000 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 benefitting from other elements of tax credits.

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 2025) 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 (91%) 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: Number of in-work families (thousands) by range of income used to taper awards, December 2024

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

Income	Number of families	% of families
Up to £7,955	8	15
£7,955 to £9,999	6	11
£10,000 to £19,999	24	45
£20,000 to £29,999	10	19
£30,000 to £39,999	4	7
£40,000 to £50,000	1	2
Over £50,000	0.3	[low]

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: Number of in-work families (thousands) with children by payee and chosen frequency of payment, December 2024

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

Payee	Weekly	Weekly (%)	Four weekly	Four weekly (%)	Total
Single females	6	70	2	30	8
Single males	0.3	65	0.2	35	[low]
Couple female payee	9	61	6	39	15
Couple male payee	5	56	4	44	9

Section 8: Regional analysis of recipient families

There are breakdowns of the level of support provided in each region, the numbers of families and children benefitting from the childcare element as well as the disabled worker element and disabled child element. Due to a large number of suppressed figures at Local Authority Level, Westminster Parliamentary Constituency Level and Scottish Parliamentary Constituency Level, there are no breakdowns at these levels as in previous publications of these statistics.

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 2,197,000 tax credit recipients identified as having their tax credits claim terminated due to a move to UC. The monthly transfer to UC between January 2024 to December 2024 was between 32,000 and 91,000.

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

Since January 2019, 290,000 claims have ended due to household breakdown and 2,206,000 claims have ended or been terminated for other reasons.

There was a larger number of claims terminated in autumn due to the annual renewal process for tax credits, and also 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 UC 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

Future publication of Provisional Award Statistics

Users of these statistics should note that this is the final statistical release in the series due to the migration of tax credit claimants to Universal Credit.

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

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