The available information is in the table.
Incapacity benefit Employment and support allowance February 2004 2,819,160 — May 2004 2,814,710 — August 2004 2,817,010 — November 2004 2,814,410 — February 2005 2,799,870 — May 2005 2,783,720 — August 2005 2,767,740 — November 2005 2,752,900 — February 2006 2,747,490 — May 2006 2,730,000 — August 2006 2,724,980 — November 2006 2,714,950 — February 2007 2,704,100 — May 2007 2,685,320 — August 2007 2,683,160 — November 2007 2,683,750 — February 2008 2,659,650 — May 2008 2,637,560 — August 2008 2,632,000 — November 2008 2,593,010 53,770 February 2009 2,468,620 175,810 May 2009 2,374,210 1288,270 1 Provisional data. Notes: 1. Case load figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Employment and support allowance replaced incapacity benefit and income support paid on the grounds of incapacity for new claims from 27 October 2008. 3. The figures relating to employment and support allowance have been thoroughly quality assured to National Statistics standard. However, it should be noted that this is a new benefit using a new data source which may not have reached steady state in terms of operational processing and retrospection. Hence most recent data shown is provisional. Source: Department for Work and Pensions Information Directorate: Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study.