London has seen the highest year on year decrease in the number of families in receipt of Child Benefits, data visualised by Polimapper shows.
In August 2024, there were 6.91 million families in receipt of benefit payments, a continued decrease from last year’s numbers.
The statistics published this morning by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) show that, last August, there were 12.91 million children in families claiming Child Benefits. Additionally, 712k families and 1.06 million children have opted out of benefit payments.
Since 2013, there has been a steady reduction in the number of families receiving Child benefit payments, which can be seen across all family characteristics. This is possibly due to the introduction of the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC), which makes recipients liable to repay some or all entitlement depending on income. In April 2024, the net income threshold increased from the initial £50k per year to £60k.
Polimapper has visualised HMRC’s Child Benefit Statistics Annual Release to showcase the dataset’s potential for informing geographical analysis and discussions.
On a constituency level, the highest number of families claiming child benefits was in Barking, at 20.9k, followed by Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North (17.8k) and Slough (17.8k). The highest rate of family claimants described as one-child families was in Edinburgh North and Leith (58%) and Hornsey and Friern Barnet (57%).
The highest number of families who have opted out of benefits was in Esher and Walton and in Harpenden and Berkhamsted, both registering over 4.1k families in this situation. Explore statistics in your area below.
About this map
The visualisation below shows child benefits and child poverty statistics in the United Kingdom by Westminster Parliament Constituency. Indicators include families and children in receipt of benefits and children in absolute poverty.
To view statistics in your area double click on the map or click here to launch the full page version.
Geodata context
HMRC’s new dataset comes just one day after news revealed that the Labour government is planning to retain the two-child benefits cap. The two-child benefits cap, imposed under a Conservative government, prevents parents from claiming benefits for a third or subsequent child born after April 2017.
In a letter to government, charities have warned government that scrapping the cap is the most cost effective way of tackling child poverty.
The letter, signed by charities including Action for Children, Save the Children UK and Citizens Advice reads: “Ensuring that fewer children are in poverty at the end of this parliamentary term than at the start will require a direct investment in family incomes via the social security system. As the bare minimum, this must start with scrapping the two-child limit and the benefit cap. The two-child limit pushes more and more children into poverty every day and will act as a brake on any other action taken by government to reduce poverty. The benefit cap pushes 300,000 children into deep poverty at a time when their parent’s capacity to work is limited. Neither policy is compatible with the ambition to raise living standards.”
“Scrapping the two-child limit is by far the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty. It would lift 350,000 children out of poverty overnight and result in 700,000 children living in less deep poverty. If it is not scrapped, the stark reality is that child poverty will be significantly higher at the end of this parliament than when the government took office making this the first time a Labour government would leave such a legacy, and the number of children living in poverty will be at its highest since records began.”
Rachael Maskell, Labour MP for York Central: “It is vital that the government follows the evidence and heeds the advice of experts.”
“Keeping people, and no less children, out of poverty must be an absolute priority for government, not least in a country where so many have so much.”
“The UK is the second most inequitable country in the world, and Labour’s duty is to consign poverty to history.”