DWP benefits statistics, State Pension statistics reinstatement: November 2024
Updated 28 November 2024
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
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This is a summary of the Accredited Official Statistics for State Pension administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The next statistics release will be on Stat-Xplore (on 18 February 2025) and in an HTML statistical summary.
State Pension statistics have been restored within the November 2024 release of DWP benefit statistics following their suspension in February 2024. Although a statistical summary is not typically included in the November release of the statistics, this quarter we have provided this summary focusing on State Pension statistics, as this is their first update since November 2023.
1. Headlines
The main headline figures for State Pension statistics from May 2023 to May 2024:
- there were 12.9 million people receiving the State Pension at May 2024, an increase of 220,000 on May 2023
- the new State Pension (nSP) was introduced for people reaching State Pension Age from 6 April 2016. At May 2024 there were 4.1 million people receiving nSP, an increase of 730,000 from May 2023
- there were 8.8 million people receiving the Pre-2016 State Pension at May 2024, a decrease of 510,000 from May 2023
- in May 2024, the nSP mean weekly payment was £207.53 (including any Protected Payments). Under the pre-2016 system the mean amount was £198.88 per week in May 2024
People can claim more than one DWP benefit at a time. The Benefit Combination statistics show:
- 23.6 million people claimed some combination of DWP benefits in May 2024 (of the 17 benefits included in these statistics), of these:
- 13.1 million were of State Pension Age.
- 9.8 million were of Working Age.
- 730,000 were under 16 (and in receipt of Disability Living Allowance as a child)
2. What you need to know
This release covers DWP benefits in Great Britain. State Pension statistics within this release cover the period up to May 2024.
In February 2024 the Accredited Official Statistics for State Pension were suspended due to issues with processing data from the new Get Your State Pension (GYSP) system.
The stability of the feed of data from the Get Your State Pension (GYSP) service was previously not sufficient to provide accurate and reliable estimates of recipient numbers or entitlement amounts. While the underlying data was received from the service correctly, processing issues led to observable inaccuracies appearing in the final GYSP data outputs.
Following extensive redesign and testing of data processing procedures from the GYSP system we are now able to extract accurate and reliable data from the system, enabling reinstatement of State Pension data to the DWP benefits statistics collection. State Pension data have also been reinstated to the DWP Benefit Combinations statistics on 28 November 2024.
The Benefit Combinations statistics have reinstated State Pension Age data for the most recent May 2024 quarter only on 28 November 2024. Due to the complexity of Benefit Combinations, full reinstatement of State Pension Age data to the earlier suspended quarters for August 2023, November 2023 and February 2024 datasets is not possible before 28 November 2024. As a result, overall caseload totals for this period are not comparable to previous quarters, as all data for claimants of State Pension Age are not included. Earlier quarters are unaffected.
The full timeseries for Benefit Combinations will have State Pension Age data restored in February 2025.
More detailed figures for the benefits covered in this summary can be found using Stat-Xplore. This is an online tool that lets you create and download customised statistical tables or view the results as interactive charts.
Benefits Combinations statistics explore how benefits are claimed in combination for claimants of all ages. In response to Scottish Devolution, important presentational changes have been made to this series. For more details see the Benefit Combinations background information note.
More information on how these statistics are produced is available through the Methodology statement and Quality statement.
3. Pensions
Statistics on State Pension covering the period up to May 2024 are available in the State Pension dataset on Stat-Xplore.
People receiving State Pension by type to May 2024
Source: DWP benefits statistics
The State Pension caseload has increased over the last year. There were 12.9 million people receiving the State Pension at May 2024, an increase of 220,000 (1.7%) from May 2023. In December 2018, the State Pension Age was raised above 65 for both men and women, initially resulting in fewer new claims. However, since October 2020 the minimum State Pension Age has stood at 66 years. A further raising of the State Pension Age will begin from 2026.
The new State Pension (nSP) was introduced for people reaching State Pension Age from 6 April 2016. At May 2024 there were 4.1 million people receiving nSP, an increase of 730,000 (21.0%) from May 2023.
New State Pension
Comparison of average weekly amounts of State Pension by type and gender at May 2024
| State Pension scheme | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| New State Pension | £209.49 | £205.00 |
| Pre-2016 State Pension | £217.25 | £186.03 |
Source: DWP benefits statistics
At May 2024 the average (mean) weekly payment for people receiving a State Pension was £201.65, an increase of £17.22 from May 2023.
The nSP mean weekly payment was £207.53 (including any Protected Payments). Under the pre-2016 system the mean amount was £198.88 per week.
The introduction of nSP has evened out some of the gap between the average weekly payments for men and women, as women tend to get more under the new rules than under the Pre-2016 rules. However, due to earlier timetabled increases in women’s State Pension Age fewer women have joined the nSP than men.
4. About these statistics
This is a summary of the Accredited Official Statistics for State Pension administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). State Pension statistics have been restored within the November 2024 release of DWP Benefit Statistics following their suspension in February 2024. Data for DWP administered benefits are released on a quarterly basis in:
- February
- May
- August
- November
Figures in this bulletin are rounded in accordance with the DWP rounding policy for statistics, details of which can be found in the “Rounding” section of the background information note. Unrounded figures from the underlying data available on Stat-Xplore or in accompanying tables may not sum exactly to the rounded totals accordingly.
These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in November 2020. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.
The designation of ‘Accredited Official Statistics’ is in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
The State Pension statistics within this DWP benefit statistics release are Accredited Official Statistics. Benefit combination statistics within this release are Official Statistics.
Official Statistics are produced in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and the Code of Practice for Statistics and meet high standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value.
More detailed statistical tables covering all Accredited Official Statistics for DWP benefits can be found using Stat-Xplore. This is an online tool that lets you create and download customised statistical tables, and view the results in interactive charts.
Data tables are provided where data is not available on Stat-Xplore.
Benefit Combination statistics are included as part of the quarterly DWP benefits statistics collection. The statistics allow users to view the combinations of benefits that people claim at a point in time for almost all benefits administered by DWP. The latest release published on 28 November 2024 can be found on Stat-Xplore.
Read our policies and statements for background information on DWP Accredited Official Statistics and Official benefit statistics, including some of the processes involved in developing and releasing these statistics.
5. Contact information and feedback
For more information about this release, contact: benefits.statistics@dwp.gov.uk.
DWP would like to hear your views on our statistical publications. If you use any of our statistics publications, we would be interested in hearing what you use them for and how well they meet your requirements. Email benefits.statistics@dwp.gov.uk with your feedback.
You can also join the Welfare and Benefit Statistics community on StatsUserNet. DWP announces items of interest to users in this forum, as well as replying to users’ questions.
Authors: Craig Mejury, Matt Brown, George Mclean and Olivia Jenkinson
Lead statistician: Tonia Hagan
ISBN: 978-1-78659-781-6