This version is in beta - expect some breaking changes.

Individuals State Benefits (MTD) API

Version and status
Available in Sandbox	Yes
Sandbox base URL	https://test-api.service.hmrc.gov.uk
Available in Production	Yes
Production base URL	https://api.service.hmrc.gov.uk

Overview

This suite of endpoints allows software packages to:

list and retrieve state benefits
create or amend customer added state benefits
delete customer added state benefits
create or amend benefits financial data
mark a state benefit as ignored

For certain scenarios a request may not be made for a tax year which has not yet ended. This includes:

creating, or amending a customer added state benefit
ignoring a HMRC held state benefit
amending state benefit amounts for benefit types which are not Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) or Employment Support Allowance (ESA)

Versioning

When an API changes in a way that is backwards-incompatible, we increase the version number of the API. See our reference guide for more on versioning.

Errors

We use standard HTTP status codes to show whether an API request succeeded or not. They are usually in the range:

200 to 299 if it succeeded, including code 202 if it was accepted by an API that needs to wait for further action
400 to 499 if it failed because of a client error by your application
500 to 599 if it failed because of an error on our server

Errors specific to each API are shown in the Endpoints section, under Response. See our reference guide for more on errors.

Single errors will be returned in the following format:
{ "code": "FORMAT_FIELD_NAME", "message": "The provided FieldName is invalid" }

Where possible, multiple errors will be returned with INVALID_REQUEST in the following format:
{ "code": "INVALID_REQUEST", "message": "Invalid request", "errors": [ { "code": "RULE_FIELD_NAME", "message": "The provided FieldName is not allowed" }, { "code": "FORMAT_FIELD_NAME", "message": "The provided FieldName is invalid" } ] }

Where it is possible for the same error to be returned multiple times, message will describe the expected format and paths will show the fields which are invalid.

Where arrays are submitted a number indicates the object in the array sequence, for example, /arrayName/1/fieldName

An example with single error:
{ "code": "FORMAT_STRING_NAME", "message": "The provided field is not valid", "paths": [ "/arrayName/0/fieldName" ] }

An example with multiple errors: { "code": "INVALID_REQUEST", "message": "Invalid request", "errors": [ { "code": "FORMAT_VALUE", "message": "The field should be between 0 and 99999999999.99", "paths": [ "/objectName/fieldName1", "/arrayName/0/fieldName2" ] }, { "code": "FORMAT_STRING_NAME", "message": "The provided field is not valid", "paths": [ "/arrayName/0/fieldName3", "/arrayName/1/fieldName3" ] } ] }

Changelog

You can find the changelog in the individuals-state-benefits-api GitHub wiki.

Support

Raise non-technical or platform-related issues with the Software Development Support Team (SDST).
Raise technical issues on the individuals-state-benefits-api GitHub page.

Testing

You can use the sandbox environment to test this API. You can use the Create Test User API or it's frontend service to create test users.

It may not be possible to test all scenarios in the sandbox. You can test some scenarios by passing the Gov-Test-Scenario header. Documentation for each endpoint includes a Test data section, which explains the scenarios that you can simulate using the Gov-Test-Scenario header.

If you have a specific testing need that is not supported in the sandbox, contact our support team.

Some APIs may be marked [test only]. This means that they are not available for use in production and may change.

Endpoints

/individuals/state-benefits/{nino}/{taxYear}

List State Benefits

GET

This endpoint allows a developer to retrieve a list of all state benefits.

Any HMRC held benefit amounts that have been amended, will result in a duplicate benefit being created within the customerAddedStateBenefits array. It will have the same benefit ID.

A National Insurance number, a tax year that ended, and benefit ID must be provided.

Authorisation

This endpoint is user-restricted and requires an Authorization header containing an OAuth 2.0 Bearer Token with the read:self-assessment scope.

Path parameters

Path parameters table
Name	Description
nino string required	National Insurance number, in the format AA999999A. For example: `TC663795B`
taxYear string required	The tax year the data applies to, for example, 2020-21. The start year and end year must not span two tax years. The minimum tax year is 2020-21. No gaps are allowed, for example, 2020-22 is not valid. (The minimum tax year in Sandbox is 2019-20.) For example: `2020-21`

Query parameters

Query parameters table
Name	Description
benefitId string optional	Unique identifier of the benefit. Must conform to the regular expression `^[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[1-5][0-9a-f]{3}-[89ab][0-9a-f]{3}-[0-9a-f]{12}$` For example: `f0d83ac0-a10a-4d57-9e41-6d033832779f`

Request headers

Request headers Table
Name	Description
Accept required	Specifies the response format and the version of the API to be used. For example: `application/vnd.hmrc.1.0+json`
Gov-Test-Scenario optional	Only in sandbox environment. See Test Data table for all header values. For example: `-`
Authorization required	An OAuth 2.0 Bearer Token with the `read:self-assessment` scope. For example: `Bearer bb7fed3fe10dd235a2ccda3d50fb`

Name	Description
stateBenefits array optional
benefitType string required	The type of benefit claimed. Limited to the following possible values: `incapacityBenefit` `statePension` `statePensionLumpSum` `employmentSupportAllowance` `jobSeekersAllowance` `bereavementAllowance` `otherStateBenefits`
dateIgnored string optional	An ISO-8601 compliant date-time representing when the customer requested the data to be ignored. For example: `2021-04-04T01:01:01Z`
submittedOn string optional	An ISO-8601 compliant date-time representing when incapacity benefit was submitted. For example: `2021-04-04T01:01:01Z`
benefitId string required	Unique identifier of the benefit. Must conform to the regular expression `^[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[1-5][0-9a-f]{3}-[89ab][0-9a-f]{3}-[0-9a-f]{12}$`
startDate string required	The date the benefit started in the format YYYY-MM-DD. For example: `2021-04-06`
endDate string optional	The date the benefit ended in the format YYYY-MM-DD. For example: `2021-04-06`
amount number optional	The total amount of benefit received. The value must be between 0 and 99999999999.99 up to 2 decimal places. For example: `1999.99`
taxPaid number optional	The amount of tax paid on the benefit. The value must be between -99999999999.99 and 99999999999.99 up to 2 decimal places. Only employmentSupportAllowance and jobSeekersAllowance will return negative values. For example: `1999.99`
links array optional	A list of endpoint links that indicate possible actions related to the current resource.
href string required	The relative url of the endpoint For example: `/individuals/state-benefits/{nino}/{taxYear}/{benefitId}`
rel string required	A label for the endpoint, which describes how it is related to the current resource. The rel will be self where the action is retrieval of the same resource. Limited to the following possible values: `self` `ignore-state-benefit` `amend-state-benefit-amounts` `delete-state-benefit-amounts`
method string required	The HTTP method type for the endpoint. Limited to the following possible values: `GET` `PUT` `DELETE`
customerAddedStateBenefits array optional
benefitType string required	The type of benefit claimed. Limited to the following possible values: `incapacityBenefit` `statePension` `statePensionLumpSum` `employmentSupportAllowance` `jobSeekersAllowance` `bereavementAllowance` `otherStateBenefits`
submittedOn string optional	An ISO-8601 compliant date-time representing when incapacity benefit was submitted. For example: `2021-04-04T01:01:01Z`
benefitId string required	Unique identifier of the benefit. Must conform to the regular expression `^[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[1-5][0-9a-f]{3}-[89ab][0-9a-f]{3}-[0-9a-f]{12}$`
startDate string required	The date the benefit started in the format YYYY-MM-DD. For example: `2021-04-06`
endDate string optional	The date the benefit ended in the format YYYY-MM-DD. For example: `2021-04-06`
amount number optional	The total amount of benefit received. The value must be between 0 and 99999999999.99 up to 2 decimal places. For example: `1999.99`
taxPaid number optional	The amount of tax paid on the benefit. The value must be between -99999999999.99 and 99999999999.99 up to 2 decimal places. Only employmentSupportAllowance and jobSeekersAllowance will return negative values. For example: `1999.99`
links array optional	A list of endpoint links that indicate possible actions related to the current resource.
href string required	The relative url of the endpoint For example: `/individuals/state-benefits/{nino}/{taxYear}/{benefitId}`
rel string required	A label for the endpoint, which describes how it is related to the current resource. The rel will be self where the action is retrieval of the same resource. Limited to the following possible values: `self` `amend-state-benefit` `delete-state-benefit` `amend-state-benefit-amounts` `delete-state-benefit-amounts`
method string required	The HTTP method type for the endpoint. Limited to the following possible values: `GET` `PUT` `DELETE`
links array required	A list of endpoint links that indicate possible actions related to the current resource.
href string required	The relative url of the endpoint For example: `/individuals/state-benefits/{nino}/{taxYear}`
rel string required	A label for the endpoint, which describes how it is related to the current resource. The rel will be self where the action is retrieval of the same resource. Limited to the following possible values: `self` `create-state-benefit`
method string required	The HTTP method type for the endpoint. Limited to the following possible values: `GET` `POST`

Scenario	HTTP status	Code
The format of the supplied NINO field is not valid.	400 (Bad Request)	FORMAT_NINO
The format of the supplied tax year field is not valid.	400 (Bad Request)	FORMAT_TAX_YEAR
The format of the supplied benefit ID field is not valid.	400 (Bad Request)	FORMAT_BENEFIT_ID
Tax year range invalid. A tax year range of one year is required.	400 (Bad Request)	RULE_TAX_YEAR_RANGE_INVALID
The specified tax year is not supported. That is, the tax year specified is before the minimum tax year value.	400 (Bad Request)	RULE_TAX_YEAR_NOT_SUPPORTED
The client or agent is not authorised. This is because: the client is not subscribed to MTD, the agent is not subscribed to Agent Services, or the client has not authorised the agent to act on their behalf.	403 (Forbidden)	CLIENT_OR_AGENT_NOT_AUTHORISED
The supplied income source could not be found.	404 (Not Found)	MATCHING_RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND

Header Value (Gov-Test-Scenario)	Scenario
N/A - DEFAULT	Simulates a list of all state benefit types.
N/A - DEFAULT using benefitId parameter	Simulates a single HMRC held state benefit.
HMRC_AMENDED_AMOUNTS	Simulates the response where a HMRC held state benefit amounts have been amended.
NOT_FOUND	Simulates the scenario where no data is found.

Name	Description
Accept required	Specifies the response format and the version of the API to be used. For example: `application/vnd.hmrc.1.0+json`
Content-Type required	Specifies the format of the request body, which must be JSON. For example: `application/json`
Gov-Test-Scenario optional	Only in sandbox environment. See Test Data table for all header values. For example: `-`
Authorization required	An OAuth 2.0 Bearer Token with the `write:self-assessment` scope. For example: `Bearer bb7fed3fe10dd235a2ccda3d50fb`

Name	Description
benefitType string required	The type of benefit claimed Limited to the following possible values: `incapacityBenefit` `statePension` `statePensionLumpSum` `employmentSupportAllowance` `jobSeekersAllowance` `bereavementAllowance` `otherStateBenefits`
startDate string required	The date the benefit started in the format YYYY-MM-DD For example: `2029-04-06`
endDate string optional	The date the benefit ended in the format YYYY-MM-DD For example: `2020-01-01`

Name	Description
benefitId string required	Unique identifier of the benefit type Must conform to the regular expression `^[0-9a-f]{8}-[0-9a-f]{4}-[1-5][0-9a-f]{3}-[89ab][0-9a-f]{3}-[0-9a-f]{12}$` For example: `123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000`
links array required	A list of endpoint links that indicate possible actions related to the current resource.
href string required	The relative url of the endpoint. For example: `/individuals/state-benefits/{nino}/{taxYear}`
rel string required	A label for the endpoint, which describes how it is related to the current resource. The rel will be self where the action is retrieval of the same resource. Limited to the following possible values: `self` `amend-state-benefit` `delete-state-benefit`
method string required	The HTTP method type for the endpoint. Limited to the following possible values: `GET` `PUT` `DELETE`

Header Value (Gov-Test-Scenario)	Scenario
N/A - DEFAULT	Simulates success response.
NOT_FOUND	Simulates the scenario where no data is found.

Header Value (Gov-Test-Scenario)	Scenario
N/A - DEFAULT	Simulates success response.
HMRC_HELD	Simulates the scenario in which a benefit is HMRC held and therefore cannot be modified or deleted.
NOT_FOUND	Simulates the scenario where no data is found.

Name	Description
amount number required	The total amount of the state benefit. The value must be between 0 and 99999999999.99 up to 2 decimal places. For example: `800.45`
taxPaid number optional	The amount of tax to be paid on state benefit. The value must be between -99999999999.99 and 99999999999.99 up to 2 decimal places. For example: `1200.42`

Header Value (Gov-Test-Scenario)	Scenario
N/A - DEFAULT	Simulates success response.
CUSTOMER_ADDED	Simulates the scenario in which a benefit is customer added and therefore cannot be ignored.
NOT_FOUND	Simulates the scenario where no data is found.

Header Value (Gov-Test-Scenario)	Scenario
N/A - DEFAULT	Simulates success response.
UNIGNORE_FORBIDDEN	Simulates the scenario in which a benefit is customer added and therefore cannot be unignored.
NOT_FOUND	Simulates the scenario where no data is found.