Number of families claiming and entitled to Working for Families

In the 2022 tax year, 342,000 families claimed and were entitled to Working for Families tax credits (WFF). This is a 2.6% decrease from the 2021 tax year.

This graph has a single line that shows the total number of families claiming and entitled to WFF between the 2001 and 2022 tax years. On the vertical axis is the number of families. The horizontal axis shows tax years between 2001 and 2022. The number of families getting WFF increased from 300,100 in the 2001 tax year to 421,200 in the 2011 tax year, then declined to 322,900 families in the 2018 tax year. Between the 2018 tax year and the 2020 tax year, the number of families entitled to WFF increased to 354,900. Since 2020, the number of families entitled to WFF has decreased to 342,000 in the 2022 tax year.

The above graph shows the number of families claiming and entitled to WFF between 2001 and 2022. The number of families claiming and entitled to WFF increased from 300,100 in the 2001 tax year to 421,200 in the 2011 tax year. This followed increases to the WFF entitlements between 2005 and 2010.

Between 2011 and 2018, the number of families claiming and entitled to WFF decreased to 322,900. WFF entitlements depend on a family’s income. Families with higher income are entitled to less WFF. The decrease between 2011 and 2018 is linked to increasing income over this period. After the introduction of BSTC and changes to the Family Tax Credit entitlements on 1 July 2018, the number of families claiming and entitled to WFF increased again, peaking at 354,900 in the 2020 tax year. In the 2022 tax year, 342,000 families claimed and were entitled to WFF, a 2.6% decrease compared to the previous year.