Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit

If you wish to claim tax credits, see the Gov.uk tax credits web page.

Links to benefits calculators are contained on the Gov.uk website. These are free to use and anonymous.

Tax credits and Universal Credit cannot be claimed at the same time.

Summary

In December 2016, there were provisionally estimated to be 78,400 families in receipt of Child Tax Credit and/or Working Tax Credit in the Lancashire-12 area. In addition, there were 14,800 recipient families in Blackburn with Darwen unitary authority and 13,800 in Blackpool unitary authority. These latter two figures were the greatest totals in the Lancashire-14 area, followed by Preston (11,100 families) and Pendle (8,400 families). Ribble Valley (2,300) had the lowest number of recipient families of CTC/WTC in the area.

Change in the number of recipient families, December 2014 to December 2016

Between December 2014 and December 2016, there was an estimated provisional fall of 8.6% in the number of families receiving Child Tax Credit and/or Working Tax Credit in the UK (389,100 families) and a 13.1% reduction in the Lancashire-12 area (11,800 families).

Within the Lancashire-14 area, Lancaster (2,400 families, 23.8%) has seen the largest reduction over the period, followed by Blackpool (1,900 families, 12.1%) and Blackburn with Darwen (1,600 families, 9.8%).

In addition to Lancaster, large percentage decreases were recorded in Fylde (19.0%, 800 families), West Lancashire (18.2%, 1,400 families), Ribble Valley (14.8%, 400 families) and Chorley (13.7%, 1,000 families).

Only Pendle (7.7%, 700 families) has seen a percentage fall in recipient families of CTC/WTC in the Lancashire-14 area that was lower than the UK average (8.6%) between December 2014 and December 2016.   

Universal Credit is replacing Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit over the next few years and the decline in the number of recipient families of CTC/WTC is likely to be owing, in part, to the introduction of Universal Credit. Other reasons may include changes to benefits and tax credits.

 

Page updated April 2017