How does my area compare?

Birmingham has the highest total spending on Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment 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, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Total, low to high

Under £18.5m
£18.5m to £31.1m
£31.1m to £43.7m
£43.7m to £56.3m
£56.3m to £68.9m
£68.9m and over

Estimated value

Spending on Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment, total, 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 total 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. 2026-27 prices.

What changed: Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment
February 2023	£6.9bn
Population	+£78.5m
Share claiming	+£1.0bn
Payment size	+£530.8m
March 2026	£8.5bn

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.

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 total, 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	Birmingham	£167.4m	£142
2	Glasgow City	£148.2m	£228	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
3	Liverpool	£107.0m	£211
4	County Durham	£95.2m	£177
5	Sheffield	£93.5m	£161
6	Manchester	£90.8m	£154
7	Leeds	£90.0m	£107
8	Bradford	£81.4m	£145
9	North Lanarkshire	£79.0m	£230	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
10	South Lanarkshire	£72.8m	£219	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
11	Cornwall	£72.0m	£124
12	Wirral	£70.7m	£216
13	Fife	£70.7m	£189	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
14	North Yorkshire	£69.2m	£109
15	Somerset	£65.1m	£111
16	Wiltshire	£64.7m	£124
17	Wakefield	£61.9m	£169
18	Buckinghamshire	£60.0m	£104
19	City of Edinburgh	£57.5m	£108	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
20	Sunderland	£57.0m	£199
21	Wigan	£56.7m	£165
22	Rotherham	£54.7m	£198
23	Sefton	£54.1m	£190
24	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£53.2m	£194
25	Doncaster	£52.5m	£164
26	Bristol, City of	£52.3m	£106
27	Kirklees	£51.1m	£115
28	Croydon	£50.9m	£125
29	Cheshire West and Chester	£50.4m	£136
30	Barnsley	£49.7m	£198
31	Coventry	£49.5m	£134
32	Salford	£49.3m	£168
33	Cheshire East	£47.8m	£114
34	Rhondda Cynon Taf	£47.7m	£197
35	Sandwell	£47.6m	£135
36	East Riding of Yorkshire	£47.1m	£132
37	Nottingham	£47.0m	£142
38	Northumberland	£46.6m	£141
39	Newham	£46.4m	£122
40	Walsall	£45.0m	£153
41	Plymouth	£44.7m	£164
42	Medway	£44.6m	£153
43	Dudley	£44.3m	£134
44	Bolton	£43.9m	£142
45	Swansea	£42.9m	£171
46	Cardiff	£42.9m	£112
47	Tameside	£42.9m	£179
48	Stockport	£42.9m	£142
49	West Northamptonshire	£42.7m	£97
50	Rochdale	£42.4m	£181

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are total 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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