State support

Published 12 July 2022

Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• 51% of families in the UK received a type of state support, such as the State Pension or Child Benefit, in the 3 years to March 2021

• white British families were the most likely to receive state support, and families from the Chinese ethnic group were the least likely to

• white British families (51%) were the most likely to receive non-income related benefits, such as the State Pension

• families from the Bangladeshi and black ethnic groups (both 24%) were the most likely to receive income-related benefits, such as help with the cost of housing

• the percentage of families getting state support went down for every ethnic group in the time period covered by this data

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

The data measures the financial support that families receive from the state, by ethnicity.

A family is defined as a single adult or a married or cohabiting couple, plus any dependent children. The figures include families of all ages, including pensioners.

Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number, so some figures may not add up to 100.

Not included in the data

The data does not include:

• people who live in communal accommodation (for example, care homes)
• people with no fixed address (for example, homeless people)

Percentages of less than 0.5% before rounding have been suppressed.

The ethnic groups used in the data

The data uses the ethnic categories from the 2011 Census.

Because of differences in the way ethnicity data is collected in the UK, data is aggregated for each of the black, mixed and ‘other’ ethnic groups, which means estimates are shown for these groups as a whole. Data is shown separately for the white British group and all other white groups combined (‘white other’ ethnic group).

Some households contain people from different ethnic backgrounds. The ethnicity assigned to the household is that of the head of the household (usually the person with the highest income). The data does not account for people of different ethnic backgrounds who live in the same household.

Methodology

Read the detailed methodology document for this data.

Because the data varies from year to year, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) takes 3 years’ worth of data and works out the average for that period. This is to make sure there are enough survey respondents to be able to make reliable generalisations. You can find out more about combining multiple years of data to create reliable estimates.

Responses are weighted on the basis of regional population totals by age and sex to give estimates for the entire UK household population. You can read more about how weighting is used to make survey data more representative of the group it is about.

The figures on this page are based on survey data. Find out more about interpreting survey data, including how reliability is affected by the number of people surveyed.

3. By ethnicity and type of support

• Location: United Kingdom
• Time period: April 2018 to March 2021 (3 years combined)
• Source: Family Resources Survey: financial year 2020 to 2021

Percentage of families receiving state support, by ethnicity and type of support

Ethnicity	Any state support	Any tax credits	Any income-related benefit	Any non-income-related benefit
	%	%	%	%
All	51	6	16	48
Asian	42	11	14	39
Bangladeshi	52	18	24	48
Chinese	25	4	8	23
Indian	39	6	8	37
Pakistani	48	17	18	44
Asian other	39	9	15	34
Black	51	11	24	44
Mixed	37	11	17	33
White	53	5	15	50
White British	54	5	16	51
White other	37	6	11	35
Other	38	8	18	35

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of State support By ethnicity and type of support Summary

The data shows that, in the 3 years to March 2021:

• on average, 51% of families received a type of state support

• white British families (54%) were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to receive state support – families from the Chinese ethnic group (25%) were the least likely to

• families from the Bangladeshi (18%) and Pakistani (17%) ethnic groups were the most likely to receive a tax credit – families from the Chinese ethnic group (4%) were the least likely to

• families from the Bangladeshi and black ethnic groups (24%) were the most likely to receive an income-related benefit – families from the Chinese and Indian ethnic groups (both 8%) were the least likely to

• white British families (51%) were the most likely to receive a non-income related benefit, including the State Pension – families from the Chinese ethnic group (23%) were the least likely to

• on average, all families were more likely to receive a non-income related benefit (48%) than an income-related benefit (16%) or a tax credit (6%)

4. By ethnicity over time

• Location: United Kingdom
• Time period: April 2009 to March 2021 (3-year averages)
• Source: Family Resources Survey: financial year 2020 to 2021

Percentage of families receiving state support, by ethnicity over time

Ethnicity	2009/10-2011/12	2010/11-2012/13	2011/12-2013/14	2012/13-2014/15	2013/14-2015/16	2014/15-2016/17	2015/16-2017/18	2016/17-2018/19	2017/18-2019/20	2018/19-2020/21
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
All	62	61	60	58	57	56	55	53	52	51
Asian	49	50	50	49	48	47	46	45	43	42
Bangladeshi	53	52	59	55	56	56	54	49	49	52
Chinese	29	29	31	30	30	32	33	31	26	25
Indian	48	48	48	47	46	45	43	41	39	39
Pakistani	56	59	57	57	53	53	52	51	51	48
Asian other	48	51	49	49	44	45	47	47	43	39
Black	58	60	59	58	54	55	53	53	49	51
Mixed	49	47	46	44	45	44	45	42	39	37
White	63	62	61	59	58	57	56	54	53	53
White British	64	63	62	60	59	58	57	56	54	54
White other	48	47	46	45	42	39	37	36	35	37
Other	55	53	52	49	49	44	42	40	40	38

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of State support By ethnicity over time Summary

The data shows that, in the time period covered:

• on average, the percentage of families receiving state support went down from 62% to 51%

• the percentage of families receiving state support went down in every ethnic group

• the biggest decrease was in the ‘other’ ethnic group, which went down from an average of 55% in the 3 years to March 2012, to 38% in the 3 years to March 2021

5. By ethnicity and type of non-income related benefit

• Location: United Kingdom
• Time period: April 2018 to March 2021 (3 years combined)
• Source: Family Resources Survey: financial year 2020 to 2021

Percentage of families receiving non-income related benefits, by ethnicity and type of benefit

Ethnicity	Child Benefit	State Pension	Disability Living Allowance (care component)	Disability Living Allowance (mobility component)
	%	%	%	%
All	18	24	8	6
Asian	24	10	5	4
Bangladeshi	34	7	10	8
Chinese	12	8	1	~0
Indian	19	14	4	2
Pakistani	30	7	6	6
Asian other	23	6	3	2
Black	28	9	6	4
Mixed	20	7	5	4
White	17	26	8	6
White British	17	27	8	7
White other	23	8	3	2
Other	21	8	5	3

~0 The actual figure is greater than zero but has been rounded down

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of State support By ethnicity and type of non-income related benefit Summary

Age profiles are helpful in understanding some of these figures – for example, there are more white British people of retirement age, which helps explain why they're more likely to receive the State Pension.

The Disability Living Allowance (DLA) figures include the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which was introduced in 2013. Because of rounding, the figures shown here may not match the sum of published DLA and PIP figures.

The data shows that, in the 3 years to March 2021:

• an average of 24% of families received the State Pension, 18% received Child Benefit, 8% received the care component of Disability Living Allowance, and 6% the mobility components

• families from the Bangladeshi (34%) and Pakistani (30%) ethnic groups were the most likely to receive Child Benefit – families from the Chinese (12%) and white British (17%) ethnic groups were the least likely to

• 27% of white British families received the State Pension – almost twice the percentage of any other ethnic group

• families from the white British and Bangladeshi ethnic groups were the most likely to receive the care component (8% and 10%) as well as the mobility component (7% and 8%) of the Disability Living Allowance

6. By ethnicity and type of income-related benefit

• Location: United Kingdom
• Time period: April 2018 to March 2021 (3 years combined)
• Source: Family Resources Survey: financial year 2020 to 2021

Percentage of families receiving income-related benefits, by ethnicity and type of benefit

Ethnicity	Council Tax Reduction	Housing Benefit	Income Support	Pension Credit
	%	%	%	%
All	11	9	1	3
Asian	9	7	1	3
Bangladeshi	15	14	1	5
Chinese	6	5	~0	2
Indian	6	4	~0	2
Pakistani	12	9	2	3
Asian other	11	10	1	1
Black	18	14	2	2
Mixed	13	11	2	2
White	11	8	1	3
White British	12	9	1	3
White other	7	6	~0	2
Other	14	11	1	2

~0 The actual figure is greater than zero but has been rounded down

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of State support By ethnicity and type of income-related benefit Summary

The data shows that, in the 3 years to March 2021:

• an average of 11% of families received Council Tax Reduction, 9% received Housing Benefit, 3% received Pension Credit, and 1% received Income Support

• families from the Bangladeshi and black ethnic groups were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to receive Council Tax Reduction (15% and 18%) and Housing Benefit (both 14%)

• families from the Indian and Chinese ethnic groups were the least likely to receive Council Tax Reduction (both 6%) and Housing Benefit (4% and 5%)

• families from the Pakistani, black, and mixed ethnic groups were the most likely to receive Income Support (all 2%)

• Bangladeshi families were the most likely to receive Pension Credit (5%)

7. By ethnicity (tax credits only)

• Location: United Kingdom
• Time period: April 2018 to March 2021 (3 years combined)
• Source: Family Resources Survey: financial year 2020 to 2021

Percentage of families receiving tax credits, by ethnicity and type of tax credit

Ethnicity	Child Tax Credit	Working Tax Credit
	%	%
All	5	3
Asian	10	7
Bangladeshi	17	12
Chinese	4	2
Indian	6	4
Pakistani	16	10
Asian other	9	6
Black	11	7
Mixed	10	6
White	5	2
White British	5	2
White other	6	3
Other	8	5

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of State support By ethnicity (tax credits only) Summary

The data shows that, in the 3 years to March 2021:

• an average of 5% of families received Child Tax Credit, and 3% received Working Tax Credit

• families from the Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnic groups were the most likely to receive both Child Tax Credit (17% and 16%) and Working Tax Credit (12% and 10%)

• families from the Chinese and white British ethnic groups were the least likely to receive both Child Tax Credit (4% and 5%) and Working Tax Credit (both 2%)

8. Data sources

Source

Family Resources Survey: financial year 2020 to 2021

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Department for Work and Pensions

Note on corrections or updates

The figures for the share of income in the download file before the year ending March 2015 may not match the DWP’s published figures. This is because the way of adjusting for inflation changed from the Retail Price Index to the Consumer Price Index from the year ending March 2015 onwards.

Before 2019 to 2020, respondents from the Irish Travellers (NI) ethnic group in Northern Ireland were included in the White Other ethnic group. From 2019 to 2020, the reporting of this ethnic group was changed for all years presented to harmonise with published figures for the Family Resources Survey and Households Below Average Income, and the ONS harmonised output guidance. Irish Travellers (NI) ethnic group responses in Northern Ireland are now included in Other ethnic group.

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The main purpose of the Family Resources Survey (FRS) is to give the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data to develop, monitor and evaluate social welfare policy.

The survey is also used by other government departments, including for tax and benefit policy modelling by HM Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs. The FRS is also used extensively by academics and research institutes for social and economic research.

9. Download the data

State support (2022) - Spreadsheet (csv) 256 KB

This file contains the following: measure, time, ethnicity of head of household, ethnicity_type, geography, value, value_type and denominator

Publication release date: 12 July 2022

full page history

1. 12 July 2022 Updated with the latest available data.

From: Department for Work and Pensions

Previous editions:

1. 28 October 2020
2. 15 August 2019
3. 17 May 2019
4. 10 October 2018

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