How does my area compare?

West Dunbartonshire has the highest spending on Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment per resident in 2024-25.

Disability Living Allowance for children, and for adults who claimed it before Personal Independence Payment began. In Scotland, Child Disability Payment replaces it for children. Shown in cash terms, not adjusted for inflation.

Per resident, low to high

Under £97
£97 to £120
£120 to £144
£144 to £167
£167 to £190
£190 and over

Estimated value

Spending on Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment, per resident, 2024-25, 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 resident are drawn in dark lines.

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, Disability Living Allowance and Child 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.

What changed: Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment
February 2023	£6.0bn
Population	+£72.6m
Share claiming	+£964.3m
Payment size	+£1.4bn
March 2026	£8.4bn

The share claiming is the number of people claiming per resident. 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?

Benefit spending per resident, 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.

Expected level = £765 − £935 × share aged 0 to 15 + £9,046 × share aged 66 and over − £177 × deprivation decile + £267 × ln(median pay) + £581 × Wales + £224 × Scotland. Fitted by ordinary least squares across 346 local authorities. R² = 0.87. Gold dots are above the expected level and grey dots are below it.

Every local authority

Spending on Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment, 2024-25. Rank is for per resident, 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.

Spending on Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment for every local authority, 2024-25
Rank				Notes
1	West Dunbartonshire	£21.2m	£239	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
2	Merthyr Tydfil	£13.2m	£225
3	Knowsley	£36.3m	£225
4	North Lanarkshire	£75.0m	£218	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
5	Neath Port Talbot	£31.1m	£218
6	Inverclyde	£17.1m	£217	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
7	Glasgow City	£140.6m	£216	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
8	Tendring	£33.4m	£213
9	North Ayrshire	£27.9m	£209	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
10	South Lanarkshire	£69.1m	£207	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
11	Wirral	£67.1m	£204
12	East Ayrshire	£24.5m	£202	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
13	Liverpool	£101.5m	£200
14	Blackpool	£28.5m	£199
15	Clackmannanshire	£10.3m	£198	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
16	Blaenau Gwent	£13.4m	£197
17	Midlothian	£19.5m	£196	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
18	Caerphilly	£34.2m	£194
19	West Lothian	£36.0m	£193	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
20	Swale	£30.7m	£193
21	Thanet	£27.4m	£193
22	Dumfries and Galloway	£27.9m	£192	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
23	Hastings	£17.3m	£190
24	Sunderland	£54.0m	£188
25	Rotherham	£51.9m	£188
26	Barnsley	£47.1m	£188
27	Rhondda Cynon Taf	£45.2m	£187
28	Dundee City	£27.8m	£186	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
29	Isle of Wight	£26.2m	£186
30	Bridgend	£27.1m	£184
31	St. Helens	£34.7m	£184
32	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£50.5m	£184
33	Falkirk	£29.3m	£183	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
34	Halton	£23.8m	£181
35	Hyndburn	£15.5m	£180
36	Sefton	£51.3m	£180
37	Stevenage	£16.4m	£180
38	Torfaen	£16.8m	£179
39	Fife	£67.0m	£179	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
40	Burnley	£17.6m	£177
41	Bolsover	£14.8m	£177
42	Denbighshire	£17.0m	£173
43	South Tyneside	£26.1m	£173
44	Ashfield	£22.2m	£172
45	Rochdale	£40.2m	£171
46	South Ayrshire	£19.2m	£171	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
47	Torbay	£23.8m	£171
48	Tameside	£40.7m	£170
49	Mansfield	£19.2m	£170
50	Renfrewshire	£31.8m	£168	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are per resident unless a column says otherwise. Sources: Department for Work and Pensions, Social Security Scotland, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland.

Every measureThe full list, as plain links

Does the order change when you count per person?

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Is spending higher or lower than expected?

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