How Many Families Are Claiming £100,000 Per Year In Housing Benefit?

"Sadly this is the system we have inherited. A system that allowed some families who were living in areas with incredibly high rents, to claim over £100,000 a year in housing costs." Lord Freud, Welfare Reform Minister, 31 October 2012

Full Fact first came across this claim nearly two years ago, while we found that the average claim - at around £85 per week - was some way below the figures being used by Ministers.  We've had a response to a Freedom of Information request, and it is clear from what we've unearthed that the extremely large claims highlighted in the media are also extremely rare.  Figures show that over four out of every five Housing Benefit claims are below £100 per week according to the September 2010 figures, while only 70 out of over 4.5 million recipients claimed over £1000 per week, around 0.001% of the total.  Even this is likely to overstate the number claiming £100,000 per year however, as a family would need to claim over £1,900 per week to hit this total. Previous FoI responses from the Department have suggested around five families benefited by this amount.  Read more on the Full Fact website.