Who Gets What

How does my area compare?

Tendring has the highest benefit spending per resident in 2023-24.

All the benefits on this site: pensioner, disability, carer, working-age and housing benefits paid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). In Scotland, it includes the Social Security Scotland benefits that replace some of them. Shown in cash terms, not adjusted for inflation.

Benefit spending, per resident, 2023-24, by local authority

Per resident, low to high

  1. Under £3,168
  2. £3,168 to £3,551
  3. £3,551 to £3,933
  4. £3,933 to £4,316
  5. £4,316 to £4,699
  6. £4,699 and over
  • Estimated value
Benefit spending, per resident, 2023-24, 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 348 ranked local authorities. It joins the area's rank for each way of counting. The 10 highest per resident are drawn in dark lines.

TotalPer resident1348Tendring 1East Lindsey 2Blackpool 3North Ayrshire 4Blaenau Gwent 5Neath Port Talbot 6Inverclyde 7Thanet 8Rother 9Hartlepool 10

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, State Pension: 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.

Benefit
£104.6bnFebruary 2023+£2.3bnPopulation+£4.8bnShare claiming+£28.8bnPayment size£140.6bnMarch 2026
What changed: State Pension
February 2023£104.6bn
Population+£2.3bn
Share claiming+£4.8bn
Payment size+£28.8bn
March 2026£140.6bn
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.

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.

Chart step
This chart needs JavaScript. Each area's expected level is on its area page.
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

Benefit spending, 2023-24. 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.

Benefit spending for every local authority, 2023-24
RankNotes
1Tendring£831.0m£5,384
2East Lindsey£775.5m£5,343
3Blackpool£747.1m£5,242
4North Ayrshire£695.4m£5,199Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
5Blaenau Gwent£349.0m£5,172
6Neath Port Talbot£724.7m£5,113
7Inverclyde£401.2m£5,100Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
8Thanet£715.4m£5,081
9Rother£482.7m£5,079
10Hartlepool£484.2m£5,059
11North Norfolk£521.9m£5,043
12Torbay£703.0m£5,031
13Isle of Wight£708.6m£5,019
14West Dunbartonshire£445.7m£5,018Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
15Great Yarmouth£501.0m£4,989
16Denbighshire£482.6m£4,963
17Conwy£567.9m£4,954
18Dumfries and Galloway£722.6m£4,948Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
19Merthyr Tydfil£287.9m£4,901
20Redcar and Cleveland£671.3m£4,871
21South Tyneside£726.5m£4,853
22Caerphilly£853.6m£4,842
23South Ayrshire£541.8m£4,836Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
24Torfaen£448.8m£4,798
25Hastings£437.0m£4,797
26Eastbourne£497.9m£4,793
27Knowsley£762.3m£4,788
28Wirral£1.5bn£4,761
29Sunderland£1.3bn£4,732
30Wyre£547.6m£4,700
31Folkestone and Hythe£521.3m£4,688
32Sefton£1.3bn£4,685
33Isle of Anglesey£323.9m£4,685
34East Ayrshire£565.1m£4,678Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
35Carmarthenshire£889.8m£4,677
36Pembrokeshire£579.0m£4,629
37St. Helens£856.5m£4,589
38Arun£773.1m£4,582
39County Durham£2.4bn£4,574
40Halton£595.3m£4,572
41Torridge£316.4m£4,570
42Rhondda Cynon Taf£1.1bn£4,565
43Bridgend£669.6m£4,565
44East Suffolk£1.1bn£4,558
45Enfield£1.5bn£4,557
46Dorset£1.8bn£4,553
47Liverpool£2.3bn£4,549
48North East Lincolnshire£719.3m£4,532
49Clackmannanshire£234.5m£4,513Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
50Dundee City£676.3m£4,503Estimated, 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

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