People receiving benefits
Key points
- The proportion of working-age adults in London receiving an out-of-work benefit remained static at around 14% between 2007 and 2010, though rose in Outer London.
- Elsewhere in England the proportion rose, meaning that London is now at the England average.
- In total, some 740,000 working-age adults were receiving an out-of-work benefit in London in 2010.
- With the exception of Kingston and Richmond, every borough in London has at least one ward where the level of out-of-work benefit recipiency is above the London average - and therefore above the national average. In Newham, Hackney and Islington, all wards are above the average.
- Many areas in Inner London where proportions of people claiming out-of-work benefits were high have seen small falls over the last three years. All areas in Outer London where rates were high have seen rises.
- Overall, a lower proportion of people in London claim a disability-related benefit, either in or out of work, than in the rest of England (around 7% compared to 8%). However, among the over 45s, the proportion of recipients in London is higher than the national average.
- In Newham, Hackney and Tower Hamlets, 40% or more of pensioners receive the guarantee element of Pension Credit. This rate is over three times as high as Bromley, Richmond, Bexley or Kingston.
- The high number of older people in the Outer London boroughs still means that five of the six boroughs with the largest numbers (as opposed to rates) of pensioners receiving the guarantee part of Pension Credit are in Outer London.
Find out more about People receiving benefits by visiting the indicators in this section, listed on the right.
The number of people receiving out-of-work benefits is often used as a short hand for disadvantage or deprivation in an area. It is a useful proxy, and it allows us, in this section, to look at very local areas as well as boroughs and sub-regions. But as indicated in the Income Poverty section, London also has a high proportion of low-income households where at least one adult is working, and in a large proportion benefits are not claimed.
The benefits system, and the number of people receiving out-of-work benefits, is probably the area in which the new coalition government has been its most radical. New initiatives apply to both the short-term, with changing conditions for qualifying for different types of benefit, and the long-term, with the introduction of Universal Credit. (Read the Institute for Fiscal Studies' assessment of the likely impact of Universal Credit.)
In much of this, the Government is, however building on changes made by its predecessor. It was the Labour government who introduced changes to Income Support that moved lone parents onto Job Seeker's Allowance once their youngest child turned 12. This has since come down further to 7 years old, with a further change to children aged 5 planned for October 2011. But the principle had already been established. This is equally true of the changes to disability benefits.
Because of these changes, and other changes to eligibility for incapacity benefit, it is difficult to track the numbers of people claiming particular types of benefit over time. In our analysis, we therefore group all out-of-work benefits together.
Topic:
Relevant Indicators
Glossary
Benefit recipiency levels:
the proportion of working-age adults receiving out-of-work benefits
Key out-of-work benefits:
Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), Income Support (IS), Incapacity Benefit (IB), Severe Disablement Allowance, Carer's Allowance. Disability Living Allowance is not a key out-of-work benefit as it is available to people who may be in work and is not means-tested.
Pension Credit Guarantee:
Paid to those pensioners who have little or no income. In 2008 the guarantee brought a pensioner's income to £124.05 a week for single pensioners and £189.35 a week for pensioner couples
Inner London:
Camden, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, Westminster
Outer London:
Barking & Dagenham, Barnet, Bromley, Bexley, Brent, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Sutton, Waltham Forest
Incapacity Benefit:
Given to people who cannot work because of illness or disability. It is paid if Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) has ended or the individual cannot get SSP. Claimants must have paid NI contributions and been incapable of work because of sickness or disability for at least 4 days in a row including weekends and public holidays.
Since October 2008 new claimants have received an Employment and Support Allowance. This allowance will eventually replace Incapacity Benefit
(Taken from DWP website)
Workless :
People who are not working but want a job and those people who are officially unemployed make up a group who can be described as 'lacking work but wanting work'. Anyone else of working-age who is not working is therefore 'lacking work but not wanting work'. The total workless population therefore includes those lacking and wanting work as well as those lacking but not wanting work.
Job Seeker's Allowance:
Job seeker's allowance (JSA) is paid to those out-of-work but actively seeking it. There is both an income-based and contribution-based version of this benefit. The contribution- based version is limited to six months, after which a claimant may receive the income-based benefit, or no benefit at all, depending on their family income. In 2009, the basic rate of JSA was £64.30 per week for a single adult and £100.95 for a couple. 'Receiving JSA' is not the same as 'unemployment', which is measured via a household survey.