Who Gets What

How does my area compare?

Hartlepool has the most people on pension age disability benefits per 1,000 people aged 66 and over in March 2026.

People receiving Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment, in each month with published figures. Help for people over State Pension age whose disability means they need care. In Scotland, Pension Age Disability Payment replaces Attendance Allowance.

People receiving Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment, per 1,000 people aged 66 and over, March 2026, by local authority

Per 1,000 people aged 66 and over, low to high

  1. Under 126.6
  2. 126.6 to 144.5
  3. 144.5 to 162.5
  4. 162.5 to 180.5
  5. 180.5 to 198.4
  6. 198.4 and over
People receiving Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment, per 1,000 people aged 66 and over, March 2026, by local authority. Boundaries are simplified. London is also shown larger, in a separate box. Northern Ireland is not covered. Every value is in the table below.
More ways to look at itHow ranks change, why spending changed, and spending compared with the expected level

Total or per person

Does the order change when you count per person?

Each line is one of the 350 ranked local authorities. It joins the area's rank for each way of counting. The 10 highest per 1,000 people aged 66 and over are drawn in dark lines.

TotalPer 1,000 residentsPer 1,000 people aged 66 and over1350Hartlepool 1Glasgow City 2North Lanarkshire 3Tower Hamlets 4Inverclyde 5East Ayrshire 6Neath Port Talbot 7Caerphilly 8West Dunbartonshire 9North Ayrshire 10

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, Attendance Allowance and Pension Age Disability Payment: yearly spending at the rate in February 2023 and in March 2026. The chart splits the change into three parts: the number of people in the age group, the share of them claiming, and the average payment. Cash terms, not adjusted for inflation.

£5.6bnFebruary 2023+£128.6mPopulation+£1.6bnShare claiming+£1.3bnPayment size£8.6bnMarch 2026
What changed: Attendance Allowance and Pension Age Disability Payment
February 2023£5.6bn
Population+£128.6m
Share claiming+£1.6bn
Payment size+£1.3bn
March 2026£8.6bn
The share claiming is the number of people claiming per person aged 66 and over. Yearly spending here is the number claiming, times the average weekly payment, times 52. It is not the amount paid out over the year. Population after mid-2024 stays at the mid-2024 figure, so later growth shows in the share claiming. Scottish areas are left out because Social Security Scotland pays this benefit.

Compared with similar areas

Is spending higher or lower than expected?

Spending on pensioner benefits per person aged 66 and over, 2024-25. We compare it with the level we would expect from each area's share of children and of people aged 66 and over, how deprived it is compared with the rest of its nation, and the typical pay of people who live there. Cash terms, not adjusted for inflation.

Chart step
This chart needs JavaScript. Each area's expected level is on its area page.
Expected level = £12,909 + £3,353 × share aged 0 to 15 − £1,419 × share aged 66 and over − £40 × deprivation decile − £91 × ln(median pay) + £207 × Wales + £80 × Scotland. Fitted by ordinary least squares across 346 local authorities. R² = 0.35. Gold dots are above the expected level and grey dots are below it.

Every local authority

People receiving Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment, March 2026. Rank is for per 1,000 people aged 66 and over, and 1 is the highest. Areas with fewer than 1,000 people in the age group have no rank. The first 50 of 350 rows are shown.

People receiving Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment for every local authority, March 2026
RankNotes
1Hartlepool4,80049.0261.4
2Glasgow City20,42531.4242.6Includes Scottish benefits
3North Lanarkshire14,37041.8241.7Includes Scottish benefits
4Tower Hamlets4,19012.5231.9
5Inverclyde3,76047.8222.1Includes Scottish benefits
6East Ayrshire5,59046.1221.6Includes Scottish benefits
7Neath Port Talbot6,41745.0218.2
8Caerphilly7,48542.5216.4
9West Dunbartonshire3,64541.0211.3Includes Scottish benefits
10North Ayrshire6,50048.6210.3Includes Scottish benefits
11Bridgend6,24542.5208.3
12Knowsley5,44933.7207.3
13Swansea9,98139.8207.0
14Newport5,45332.6206.3
15Dundee City5,27535.3204.4Includes Scottish benefits
16Blaenau Gwent2,69639.8203.9
17Liverpool14,83529.2203.1
18Tendring8,93757.1202.8
19South Lanarkshire13,02039.1199.9Includes Scottish benefits
20Gateshead7,73938.4198.5
21Sandwell9,51126.9198.3
22Torfaen3,73339.7198.3
23South Tyneside6,01239.9197.0
24St. Helens7,20238.2196.6
25Carmarthenshire8,90446.8196.4
26Renfrewshire6,91036.6195.4Includes Scottish benefits
27Rhondda Cynon Taf8,89736.8194.4
28Manchester9,92516.9194.0
29Sunderland10,88738.0193.7
30Denbighshire4,46845.7191.1
31Blackpool5,37437.5190.7
32North East Lincolnshire6,18638.7189.7
33Newham4,89912.9189.5
34Merthyr Tydfil2,05034.9189.3
35Castle Point4,19946.6188.6
36Hackney3,88914.5187.2
37South Ayrshire5,42548.3186.8Includes Scottish benefits
38Stockton-on-Tees7,06134.3186.3
39Conwy5,71950.0185.9
40Burnley3,11131.4185.0
41Barnsley8,78034.9185.0
42East Renfrewshire3,82538.5184.6Includes Scottish benefits
43Birmingham26,59922.5183.6
44Walsall8,75529.7183.5
45Sefton11,75041.2182.9
46Middlesbrough4,44628.7182.5
47Cardiff9,59225.1182.4
48Thanet5,90041.5182.2
49Wolverhampton7,72327.5182.0
50Wyre5,81849.2181.5

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are per 1,000 people aged 66 and over unless a column says otherwise. Sources: Department for Work and Pensions, Social Security Scotland, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland.

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