Personal tax credits

This section contains summary statistics about individuals and households claiming Working Tax Credits (WTC) and/or Child Tax Credits (CTC), including numbers benefiting from individual elements such as childcare and disability, average entitlements, and income band breakdowns.

There is an additional section for Child Poverty Statistics. The data are derived from various sources of tax credits administrative data, more information on this can be found in the introductions of each statistical release.

On this page:

Personal tax credits - introductory note

Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Working Tax Credit (WTC) replaced Working Families' Tax Credit, Disabled Person's Tax Credit and Children's Tax Credit in April 2003.

CTC brings together income related support for children and for qualifying young people aged 16-19 who are in full time non-advanced education or approved training into a single tax credit, payable to the main carer. Families can claim whether or not the adults are in work.

WTC provides in work support for people on low incomes, with or without children. A family will normally be eligible for WTC if it contains one of the following:

  • a single person who is responsible for a child or young person and works at least 16 hours a week or
  • a couple who are responsible for a child or young person, and who jointly work 24 hours or more per week (NB one adult must be working at least 16 hours) or
  • a person who is receiving or has recently received a qualifying sickness or disability related benefit and has a disability that puts them at a disadvantage of getting a job, and who works at least 16 hours per week or
  • a person is aged 60 or over and works at least 16 hours per week

If none of the above applies, then a person will still be eligible for WTC if they are aged 25 and over and work 30 hours or more a week.

Tax credits are based on household circumstances and can be claimed jointly by members of a couple, or by singles. Entitlement is based on factors such as: age, income, hours worked, number and age of children, childcare costs and disabilities.

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Provisional statistics (latest estimates)

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Quality Report

Quality Report: Tax Credits Provisional Awards Statistics (PDF 44K)

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Finalised award statistics (annual view after finalisation)

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Related statistics

Bespoke analysis of tax credits data is possible although there may be a charge depending on the level of complexity and the resources required to produce. If you would like to discuss your requirements, to comment on the current publications, or for further information about the tax credits statistics please use the contact information at the beginning of this publication, or from the HMRC website.

National and official statistics - contacts

HMRC is committed to improving the official statistics they publish. They want to encourage and promote user engagement, so they can improve the statistical outputs. HMRC would welcome any views you have by following the link to the feedback form below. They will undertake to review user comments on a quarterly basis and use this information to influence the development of our official statistics. HMRC will summarise and publish user comments at regular intervals.

HMRC official statistics feedback form

Following the recent national statistics review of tax credit statistics a summary of responses have been published on the HMRC website.

National statistics review of tax credits

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Statistics for Working Families' and Disabled Person's Tax Credit

These are available from the national archives website using the links below:.

Working Families Tax Credit Statistics (Opens new window)
Disabled Person's Tax Credit Statistics (Opens new window)
WFTC and DPTC Geographical Analysis (Opens new window)
Working Families' Tax Credit take-up rates (Opens new window)

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