How does my area compare?

Hartlepool has the most people on pension age disability benefits per 1,000 people aged 66 and over in March 2026.

People receiving Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment, in each month with published figures. Help for people over State Pension age whose disability means they need care. In Scotland, Pension Age Disability Payment replaces Attendance Allowance.

Per 1,000 people aged 66 and over, low to high

Under 126.6
126.6 to 144.5
144.5 to 162.5
162.5 to 180.5
180.5 to 198.4
198.4 and over

People receiving Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment, per 1,000 people aged 66 and over, March 2026, 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 1,000 people aged 66 and over are drawn in dark lines.

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, Attendance Allowance and Pension Age 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: Attendance Allowance and Pension Age Disability Payment
February 2023	£6.4bn
Population	+£138.9m
Share claiming	+£1.7bn
Payment size	+£446.5m
March 2026	£8.7bn

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. Scottish areas are left out because Social Security Scotland pays this benefit.

Compared with similar areas

Is spending higher or lower than expected?

Spending on pensioner benefits per person aged 66 and over, 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 = £12,909 + £3,353 × share aged 0 to 15 − £1,419 × share aged 66 and over − £40 × deprivation decile − £91 × ln(median pay) + £207 × Wales + £80 × Scotland. Fitted by ordinary least squares across 346 local authorities. R² = 0.35. Gold dots are above the expected level and grey dots are below it.

Every local authority

People receiving Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment, March 2026. Rank is for per 1,000 people aged 66 and over, 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.

People receiving Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment for every local authority, March 2026
Rank					Notes
1	Hartlepool	4,800	49.0	261.4
2	Glasgow City	20,425	31.4	242.6	Includes Scottish benefits
3	North Lanarkshire	14,370	41.8	241.7	Includes Scottish benefits
4	Tower Hamlets	4,190	12.5	231.9
5	Inverclyde	3,760	47.8	222.1	Includes Scottish benefits
6	East Ayrshire	5,590	46.1	221.6	Includes Scottish benefits
7	Neath Port Talbot	6,417	45.0	218.2
8	Caerphilly	7,485	42.5	216.4
9	West Dunbartonshire	3,645	41.0	211.3	Includes Scottish benefits
10	North Ayrshire	6,500	48.6	210.3	Includes Scottish benefits
11	Bridgend	6,245	42.5	208.3
12	Knowsley	5,449	33.7	207.3
13	Swansea	9,981	39.8	207.0
14	Newport	5,453	32.6	206.3
15	Dundee City	5,275	35.3	204.4	Includes Scottish benefits
16	Blaenau Gwent	2,696	39.8	203.9
17	Liverpool	14,835	29.2	203.1
18	Tendring	8,937	57.1	202.8
19	South Lanarkshire	13,020	39.1	199.9	Includes Scottish benefits
20	Gateshead	7,739	38.4	198.5
21	Sandwell	9,511	26.9	198.3
22	Torfaen	3,733	39.7	198.3
23	South Tyneside	6,012	39.9	197.0
24	St. Helens	7,202	38.2	196.6
25	Carmarthenshire	8,904	46.8	196.4
26	Renfrewshire	6,910	36.6	195.4	Includes Scottish benefits
27	Rhondda Cynon Taf	8,897	36.8	194.4
28	Manchester	9,925	16.9	194.0
29	Sunderland	10,887	38.0	193.7
30	Denbighshire	4,468	45.7	191.1
31	Blackpool	5,374	37.5	190.7
32	North East Lincolnshire	6,186	38.7	189.7
33	Newham	4,899	12.9	189.5
34	Merthyr Tydfil	2,050	34.9	189.3
35	Castle Point	4,199	46.6	188.6
36	Hackney	3,889	14.5	187.2
37	South Ayrshire	5,425	48.3	186.8	Includes Scottish benefits
38	Stockton-on-Tees	7,061	34.3	186.3
39	Conwy	5,719	50.0	185.9
40	Burnley	3,111	31.4	185.0
41	Barnsley	8,780	34.9	185.0
42	East Renfrewshire	3,825	38.5	184.6	Includes Scottish benefits
43	Birmingham	26,599	22.5	183.6
44	Walsall	8,755	29.7	183.5
45	Sefton	11,750	41.2	182.9
46	Middlesbrough	4,446	28.7	182.5
47	Cardiff	9,592	25.1	182.4
48	Thanet	5,900	41.5	182.2
49	Wolverhampton	7,723	27.5	182.0
50	Wyre	5,818	49.2	181.5

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are per 1,000 people aged 66 and over 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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