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

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

Per resident, low to high

  1. Under £3,434
  2. £3,434 to £3,848
  3. £3,848 to £4,263
  4. £4,263 to £4,677
  5. £4,677 to £5,092
  6. £5,092 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. 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation.

Benefit
£119.8bnFebruary 2023+£2.5bnPopulation+£5.2bnShare claiming+£16.3bnPayment size£143.9bnMarch 2026
What changed: State Pension
February 2023£119.8bn
Population+£2.5bn
Share claiming+£5.2bn
Payment size+£16.3bn
March 2026£143.9bn
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. 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

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£900.6m£5,835
2East Lindsey£840.4m£5,791
3Blackpool£809.6m£5,681
4North Ayrshire£753.7m£5,635Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
5Blaenau Gwent£378.2m£5,605
6Neath Port Talbot£785.4m£5,541
7Inverclyde£434.7m£5,527Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
8Thanet£775.3m£5,506
9Rother£523.1m£5,505
10Hartlepool£524.8m£5,482
11North Norfolk£565.6m£5,466
12Torbay£761.9m£5,452
13Isle of Wight£767.9m£5,440
14West Dunbartonshire£483.0m£5,438Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
15Great Yarmouth£542.9m£5,407
16Denbighshire£523.0m£5,379
17Conwy£615.5m£5,369
18Dumfries and Galloway£783.1m£5,362Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
19Merthyr Tydfil£312.0m£5,312
20Redcar and Cleveland£727.5m£5,279
21South Tyneside£787.4m£5,259
22Caerphilly£925.1m£5,248
23South Ayrshire£587.2m£5,241Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
24Torfaen£486.3m£5,200
25Hastings£473.6m£5,199
26Eastbourne£539.6m£5,194
27Knowsley£826.1m£5,189
28Wirral£1.7bn£5,160
29Sunderland£1.4bn£5,128
30Wyre£593.5m£5,093
31Folkestone and Hythe£564.9m£5,081
32Sefton£1.4bn£5,077
33Isle of Anglesey£351.0m£5,077
34East Ayrshire£612.4m£5,070Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
35Carmarthenshire£964.3m£5,069
36Pembrokeshire£627.4m£5,016
37St. Helens£928.2m£4,973
38Arun£837.8m£4,965
39County Durham£2.6bn£4,957
40Halton£645.2m£4,955
41Torridge£342.9m£4,952
42Rhondda Cynon Taf£1.2bn£4,947
43Bridgend£725.7m£4,947
44East Suffolk£1.2bn£4,939
45Enfield£1.6bn£4,939
46Dorset£1.9bn£4,934
47Liverpool£2.5bn£4,930
48North East Lincolnshire£779.5m£4,912
49Clackmannanshire£254.1m£4,890Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
50Dundee City£733.0m£4,880Estimated, 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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