Dataset: Housing Benefit claimants
Description
Housing Benefit statistics are collected monthly from local authorities to create the Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE). The reference date is the second Thursday of the month.
Published SHBE data has been quality assured to National Statistics standards from November 2008.
There is a three month lag in the date of extract and date of publication to allow for quality assurance and data production. The lag also allows for two months worth of retrospection (the addition/amendment of data), including backdated claims information.
Background Information
Prior to the introduction of SHBE, figures up to August 2007 based on clerical returns were published. This historical data is available on the DWP website: http://statistics.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/hb_ctb/index.php?page=hbctb_arc
From November 2007 a data transfer embargo resulted in the suspension of further receipt of Housing Benefit data from local authorities.
The Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE) then became available, and data from November 2008 is published via Stat-Xplore.
Classification
Applicable to: all months from November 2008 to the latest available month
The number of categories will increase each month with the addition of the latest monthly release.