National statistics

Child Benefit Statistics: quality report, data at August 2023

Published 17 April 2024

Contact details

• Organisation unit - Knowledge, Analysis and Intelligence (KAI)
• Names - L Baines and G Heyes
• Function - Statistician, Benefits and Cross-Government Analysis
• Mail address - KAI Benefits and Cross-Government Analysis, HM Revenue and Customs, India Buildings, 31 Water Street, Liverpool, L2 0RD
• Email - G.Heyes

Introduction

Child Benefit is a payment that you can claim for your child. It is usually paid every four weeks but in some cases can be paid weekly. The payment can be claimed by anyone who qualifies.

As of January 2013, claimants may be liable to a tax charge called the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC). This tax charge does not affect a child’s entitlement but the Child Benefit recipient will be liable to repay some or all of their entitlement if their income (or their partner’s income) exceeded £50,000 per year.

For every £100 an individual earned in excess of £50,000, the tax charge increased by 1%. This means that if the Child Benefit recipient (or the recipient’s partner) earned £60,000 or more, they were liable to repay their entire Child Benefit entitlement. Child Benefit recipients affected by the HICBC (because either they or their partner earned in excess of £50,000) can choose to “opt-out” of receiving payments and negate the need to pay the HICBC.

The net income threshold for the HICBC is increasing from £50,000 to £60,000 from 6 April 2024. For individuals with income above £80,000, the amount of the tax charge will equal the amount of the Child Benefit payment. For those with income between £60,000 and £80,000, the rate at which HICBC is charged is halved, and will equal one per cent for every £200 of income that exceeds £60,000. See more information on the HICBC and HICBC changes.

More information about Child Benefit eligibility can be found on the HMRC pages on GOV.UK.

Statistical presentation

Data description

This is a National Statistics publication produced by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). National Statistics are accredited official statistics.

This publication includes details of the number of families claiming Child Benefit, receiving Child Benefit payments and opting out of receiving Child Benefit payments at 31 August 2023. It also includes the number and ages of children within those families and their geographical location. Please note that figures will include some claimants that are subject to the HICBC and have chosen to continue receiving Child Benefit payments and repay their liability through an income tax charge.

These statistics also include Child Benefit take-up rates over-time, country and English regional take-up rates and take-up rates split by individual year of age. Figures are calculated at May rather than August due to uncertainty about whether 17 to 19 year olds in August have left education or are temporarily absent. This publication uses updated population projections which include figures calculated using the latest census data and are subject to revision. These have varied by age of child which will in turn affect the take-up rates of Child Benefit by age.

These statistics also show the number of customers who continued to receive Child Benefit payments and had a corresponding tax charge liability, as well as the total value of HICBC tax revenue (2012 to 2013 tax year to 2021 to 2022 tax year). For the first time, this publication also includes this information at country and English region level.

It should be noted that the statistics do not include the number of families that are not claiming Child Benefit as a result of HICBC.

Higher level geographies

The number of families and children within those families claiming Child Benefit, receiving Child Benefit payments and opted out of receiving Child Benefit payments at 31 August 2023 are provided at country, English region, local authority and parliamentary constituency level (Westminster and Scottish).

Small area data

This annual release publication includes detailed Child Benefit small area statistics, published separately prior to August 2022. This includes the number of families claiming Child Benefit payments and the number, age, and sex of children within those families for the United Kingdom at Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) for England and Wales, Super Data Zone (SDZ) for Northern Ireland and Data Zone for Scotland. Population counts at electoral ward level are also shown.  

The small area statistics do not include those that have opted out of receiving Child Benefit payments. Breakdowns of HICBC opt-out figures for this publication are not possible, due to the low level geographies involved. High level HICBC opt-out information is available within the higher level geographical tables.

Child Benefit small area statistics published before August 2022 can be found on the Child Benefit: small area data collection page.

Statistical processing

Source data

The main source data used to create the Child Benefit statistical publication is the Child Benefit data stream in HMRC at 31 August 2023, from the Child Benefit System (CBS).

Data collection

The data in the August 2023 extract is sourced from HMRC’s CBS. This holds information on the number of Child Benefit claimants and their children.

Data validation

Checks carried out on the data include:

• the number of records loaded into the analysis database is as expected
• the number of records throughout the code is as expected for different files created and these are compared to previous publications
• any large changes in the number of claimants from one statistical release to the next are investigated

Quality management

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).  OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing statisticsenquiries@hmrc.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

The Child Benefit Statistics: annual release were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in May 2010. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Quality assurance

All Official Statistics produced by Knowledge, Analysis and Intelligence (KAI), must meet the standards in the Code of Practice for Statistics produced by the UK Statistics Authority and all analysts adhere to best practice as set out in the ‘Quality’ pillar.

Analytical Quality Assurance (QA) describes the arrangements and procedures put in place to ensure analytical outputs are error free and fit-for-purpose. It is an essential part of KAI’s way of working as the complexity of our work and the speed at which we are asked to provide advice means there is a high risk of error which can have serious consequences on KAI’s and HMRC’s reputation, decisions, and in turn on peoples’ lives.

Every piece of analysis is unique, and as a result there is no single QA checklist that contains all the QA tasks needed for every project. Nonetheless, analysts in KAI use a checklist that summarises the key QA tasks, and is used as a starting point for teams when they are considering what QA actions to undertake.

Teams amend and adapt it as they see fit, to take account of the level of risk associated with their analysis, and the different QA tasks that are relevant to the work.

At the start of a project, during the planning stage, analysts and managers make a risk-based decision on what level of QA is required.

Analysts and managers construct a plan for all the QA tasks that will need to be completed, along with documentation on how each of those tasks are to be carried out and turn this list into a QA checklist specific to the project.

Analysts carry out the QA tasks, update the checklist, and pass onto the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for review and eventual sign off.

Quality assessment

The QA for this project adhered to the framework described in Quality assurance and the specific procedures undertaken were as follows:

Stage 1 - Specifying the question

• previous documentation was reviewed and outputs were agreed with the relevant stakeholders

Stage 2 - Developing a methodology

• the methodology used for the previous year’s analysis was reviewed and was agreed with the team to be appropriate for producing these statistics

Stage 3 - Building and populating a model/piece of code

• most of the analysis in this publication was carried out using R and Excel and are in line with good practice guidance
• data inputs were checked to ensure they were fit-for-purpose by reviewing available documentation and, where possible, through direct contact with data suppliers
• QA of the input data was carried out
• the analysis was audited by someone other than the lead analyst – checking code and methodology

Stage 4 - Running and testing the model/code

• results were compared with those produced in previous years and differences understood and determined to be genuine
• results were determined to be explainable and in line with expectations

Stage 5 - Drafting the final outputs

• checks were completed to ensure internal consistency (e.g. totals equal the sum of the components)
• the final outputs were independently proofread and checked

Relevance

The Child Benefit statistics, including the small area data, are currently published annually in April, reflecting the data snapshot taken at 31 August. These are National Statistics and the month of publication is indicated on HMRC’s release schedule with the exact date being published at least 28 days before its release on HMRC’s statistics release calendar.

The statistics contained in this publication will be of interest to anyone who is looking for the latest possible data on Child Benefit. Specifically, there are statistics on the number of children, by age band, in each geographical area. These statistics may be of interest to academics, think tanks as well as local government and might be used for comparison to comparable tax credits statistics.

Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

The statistics are as close to real-time as possible and represent the complete picture at the 31 August, including back-dated awards with a start date on or before 31 August. As these statistics are classified as National Statistics, the exact date of publication is pre-announced at least a month in advance with the month published in the HMRC release schedule.

This publication includes detailed analysis of the Child Benefit population at 31 August 2023, as well as headline time series figures for each August back to 2013. The only exception to this is the take-up rates, which are calculated at May rather than August, due to uncertainty about whether 17 to 19 year olds in August have left education or are temporarily absent.

Data dating back to 2003, when HMRC took over the responsibility for Child Benefit, where possible can be found in the main tables that accompany the main commentary. Previously and up until April 2003, Child Benefit was administered by the Department of Social Security (now the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)).

This publication has been produced in line with UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for producing Official Statistics and has also been independently checked by a step by step QA process.

Geographical allocation

This publication follows the transition to the use of a new Child Benefit data stream in HMRC sourced from the CBS in 2021. This has led to improvements in the designatory information that accompanies the Child Benefit data. Therefore, there are fewer cases with an unknown claimant sex and more up to date claimant postcodes from the August 2021 publication onwards when compared to earlier publications. Designatory information, including claimant sex, is determined from National Insurance Numbers.

Higher level geographies

The standard geography in the main annual release statistics is country, English region, county, local authority district and parliamentary constituency.  For the August 2023 publication, geographical boundaries are derived from the latest census data, taken from the 2021 Census within the August 2023 National Statistics Postcode Look-up Directory (NSPL), where available. Where this was not available, geographical boundaries derived from Census 2011 data has been used.

Small area data

The standard geography used to report small area data in England and Wales is the LSOA. These are built from groups of Output Areas used in the 2021 Census. More information on the creation of these boundaries can be found on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) website.

Similarly, for Scotland the key small area geography is a Data Zone and for Northern Ireland it is SDZ. As with LSOA’s in England and Wales, they nest within local authority boundaries. Figures have been provided for areas determined from the 2021 Census for Northern Ireland and the 2011 Census for Scotland . More information can be found at the Scottish government statistics website and the  Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) website.

The data is grouped first by local authority and then by LSOA, SDZ or Data Zone for each region in England, Wales, Scotland and for Northern Ireland. They are presented in alphabetical order by name within these groups.

Child Benefit statistics for August 2023 are also presented by electoral wards for the UK, using the ward boundaries available from the NSPL.

Timeliness and punctuality

The publication is announced at least 28 days before publication, and the publication month can be found within HMRC’s statistics release schedule. The statistics are produced with enough time to produce the analysis, carry out quality assurance and prepare the right format for publication. The release has since been published each year on the pre-announced date.

Accessibility and clarity

HMRC has an increased focus on accessibility and all documents published for this release have met the department’s accessibility requirements.

Child Benefit statistics are free and accessible to users via the UK National Statistics publication hub.

Publications are available in PDF and Excel formats and can easily be downloaded by users. The latest statistics publication is available in HTML and Open Document Spreadsheet (ODS) formats in compliance with the new accessibility requirements.

Previous publications can be found by visiting HMRC’s statistics on The National Archives website.

Coherence and comparability

The Child Benefit statistics, including small area data, have been produced using broadly the same techniques across publications. This enables the data production process to be as coherent as possible. Following a user consultation a number of changes were made to the 2022 publication including additional information regarding HICBC, Child Benefit take-up rates and the merging of the Child Benefit: annual release and Child Benefit: small area data, further details can be found below.

The Child Benefit statistics are comparable over a 20 year period since August 2003, enabling data to be presented not just as a yearly snapshot but also as a time series. Time series figures in the main commentary are reduced to ten years in the current publication, however, data dating back to 2003, where possible, can be found in the main tables that accompany the main commentary.

Trade-offs between output quality components

We are committed to ensuring these statistics are as accurate as possible and to minimise revisions due to errors, as such, the data will be published in a timely manner taking into account the time needed to carry out full and robust quality assurance.

Data are believed to be of a high standard as they are based on a scan of the computer systems used to administer and pay Child Benefit. If anyone attempts to wilfully supply false information, they may be liable to prosecution.

Since the statistics are produced from data representing 100% of Child Benefit recipients, there are no trade-offs in terms of quality as may occur when using a sample of data.

Assessment of user needs and perceptions

Users can provide feedback by contacting the relevant statisticians whose details are provided in the publication. Users are welcomed to share views regarding the Child Benefit publication as part of HMRC’s commitment to improving Official Statistics, encouraging and promoting user engagement so statistical outputs can be regularly improved. Bespoke analysis of Child Benefit data is possible, although there may be a charge depending on the level of complexity and the resources required to produce.

HMRC launched a wide-ranging consultation on a range of statistics from 24 October 2022 until 16 January 2023. This included proposals for a number of changes to the publication, including the proposal to merge the Child Benefit: annual release and the Child Benefit: small area data. A response to the consultation on a range of statistics, including the Child Benefit statistics, can be found on GOV.UK.

Performance, cost and respondent burden

Most of the data sets used for this analysis are taken from the Child Benefit administrative data and therefore the cost of carrying out this analysis is minimal. The compilation of these statistics does not impose any additional burden on employees or employers.

Confidentiality, transparency and security

All data sets used for these statistics are stored in Controlled Access Folders (CAFs), which are accessible to only a few analysts who are part of the production team and therefore have a business need to access the data.

HMRC is committed to the efficient management of information. As such, our records are compliant with:

• UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) 2018
• The Data Protection Act 2018
• The Data Protection Act 1998
• The Public Records Act 1968
• The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI) (in particular the Code of Practice on Records Management issued under s46 FOI which requires that public authorities have effective record-keeping arrangements in place)

Under the guidelines for pre-release access, information contained in the tables is not given out in final form until one day before publication and then only to nominated officials and ministers whose names are published on the HMRC pages on GOV.UK.