Who Gets What

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 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Spending on Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment, per resident, 2024-25, by local authority

Per resident, low to high

  1. Under £103
  2. £103 to £127
  3. £127 to £152
  4. £152 to £177
  5. £177 to £201
  6. £201 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.

TotalPer resident1350West Dunbartonshire 1Merthyr Tydfil 2Knowsley 3North Lanarkshire 4Neath Port Talbot 5Inverclyde 6Glasgow City 7Tendring 8North Ayrshire 9South Lanarkshire 10

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. 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation.

£6.8bnFebruary 2023+£78.4mPopulation+£1.0bnShare claiming+£608.9mPayment size£8.6bnMarch 2026
What changed: Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment
February 2023£6.8bn
Population+£78.4m
Share claiming+£1.0bn
Payment size+£608.9m
March 2026£8.6bn
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. 2026-27 prices, using CPI 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

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
RankNotes
1West Dunbartonshire£22.5m£253Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
2Merthyr Tydfil£14.0m£238
3Knowsley£38.5m£238
4North Lanarkshire£79.4m£231Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
5Neath Port Talbot£32.9m£231
6Inverclyde£18.1m£229Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
7Glasgow City£148.9m£229Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
8Tendring£35.3m£226
9North Ayrshire£29.6m£221Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
10South Lanarkshire£73.1m£220Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
11Wirral£71.0m£216
12East Ayrshire£25.9m£214Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
13Liverpool£107.4m£211
14Blackpool£30.1m£210
15Clackmannanshire£10.9m£210Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
16Blaenau Gwent£14.2m£209
17Midlothian£20.7m£207Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
18Caerphilly£36.2m£206
19West Lothian£38.1m£205Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
20Swale£32.5m£205
21Thanet£29.0m£204
22Dumfries and Galloway£29.6m£203Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
23Hastings£18.3m£201
24Sunderland£57.2m£200
25Rotherham£54.9m£199
26Barnsley£49.9m£199
27Rhondda Cynon Taf£47.9m£198
28Dundee City£29.4m£197Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
29Isle of Wight£27.8m£197
30Bridgend£28.7m£195
31St. Helens£36.7m£195
32Kingston upon Hull, City of£53.5m£195
33Falkirk£31.0m£194Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
34Halton£25.2m£192
35Hyndburn£16.4m£191
36Sefton£54.3m£190
37Stevenage£17.4m£190
38Torfaen£17.8m£189
39Fife£71.0m£189Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
40Burnley£18.6m£188
41Bolsover£15.7m£187
42Denbighshire£18.0m£184
43South Tyneside£27.6m£183
44Ashfield£23.5m£182
45Rochdale£42.6m£181
46South Ayrshire£20.3m£181Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
47Torbay£25.2m£181
48Tameside£43.1m£180
49Mansfield£20.3m£180
50Renfrewshire£33.6m£178Estimated, 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.

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