Incapacity Benefit

(asked on 17th October 2024) - View Source
Questioner
Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown Portrait
Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown
(Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of the population in each region are claiming incapacity benefits.

Answered by
Baroness Sherlock Portrait
Baroness Sherlock
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 31st October 2024

The Department publishes quarterly statistics on benefit combinations on Stat-Xplore, which include those claiming incapacity benefits, where an individual claims one or more of Universal Credit (Health Journey), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Incapacity Benefit (IB), Severe Disablement Allowance (DSA), and Income Support (Incapacity Based) (IS(IB)).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes mid-year population estimates for England and Wales, and Scotland.

The administration of Incapacity benefits in Northern Ireland is devolved to the Department for Communities.

The extracted statistics and the calculated estimated percentage of the total population on incapacity benefits in February 2024 are shown in the following table.

Number of individuals claiming incapacity benefits, February 2024, mid-year population estimates for England and Wales mid-2023 and Scotland mid-2022, estimated percentage of the population on incapacity benefits, February 2024.

Regions

Claimants on incapacity benefits

Mid-year Population Estimates

Estimated percentage of the total population on incapacity benefits

North East

186,734

2,711,380

6.9%

North West

474,790

7,600,126

6.2%

Yorkshire and The Humber

318,191

5,594,125

5.7%

East Midlands

244,835

4,991,265

4.9%

West Midlands

319,138

6,085,687

5.2%

East of England

260,988

6,468,665

4.0%

London

404,646

8,945,309

4.5%

South East

340,698

9,482,507

3.6%

South West

262,208

5,811,259

4.5%

Wales

218,571

3,164,404

6.9%

Scotland

364,308

5,447,700

6.7%

Source: Stat-Xplore, ONS Population Estimates

Note:

  1. Statistical disclosure control has been applied to this table to avoid the release of confidential data. Percentages are given to 1 decimal place.
  2. ‘Claimants on incapacity benefits’ includes where an individual claims one or more of Universal Credit (Health Journey), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Incapacity Benefit (IB), Severe Disablement Allowance (DSA), and Income Support (Incapacity Based) (IS(IB)), at the end of February 2024 and is taken from the ‘Benefit Combinations - Data from May 2019 for England and Wales’ dataset and the ‘Benefit Combinations – Data from May 2019 for Scotland’ dataset on Stat-Xplore.
  3. ‘Mid-year Population Estimates’ are produced by the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales to mid-2023 and for Scotland to mid-2022.
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