Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people in each (a) region and (b) constituent part of the UK were in receipt of (i) universal credit and (ii) other in-work tax credits or benefits at the beginning of the current financial year; and if he will estimate the likely numbers of such people in each of the following two financial years.

The provisional award Child and Working Tax Credits statistics for December 2013, split by geography, are available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/266640/1312_Geog_sent.xls

Table 2 breaks down Tax Credit claimants by Region and Table 4 by constituency. Those in receipt of WTC are presented within the ‘WTC and CTC' and ‘With no children' columns.

Figures for the current financial year are not yet available, but HMRC are due to publish the next provisional tax credits national statistics for April 2014 on 25 April.

Forecasts of tax credit claimant numbers are not available.

Official statistics on Universal Credit were published on 19 March and can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/293502/universal-credit-first-release-mar14.pdf

DWP announced plans for the next stage of implementation on 5 December, and these were set out in a written ministerial statement (WMS). The WMS can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/universal-credit-progress

Statistics on numbers in receipt of other benefits are available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2014