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West Dunbartonshire has the highest spending on Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment per resident in 2023-24.

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.

Per resident, low to high

Under £94
£94 to £118
£118 to £141
£141 to £165
£165 to £188
£188 and over

Estimated value

Spending on Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment, 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 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.

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, 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.

Spending on Disability Living Allowance and Child Disability Payment for every local authority, 2023-24
Rank				Notes
1	West Dunbartonshire	£21.4m	£241	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
2	Merthyr Tydfil	£13.5m	£230
3	Neath Port Talbot	£32.5m	£229
4	Glasgow City	£141.8m	£222	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
5	Inverclyde	£17.4m	£221	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
6	North Lanarkshire	£75.4m	£220	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
7	Knowsley	£34.7m	£218
8	Tendring	£32.6m	£211
9	North Ayrshire	£28.1m	£210	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
10	Blaenau Gwent	£14.1m	£210
11	South Lanarkshire	£69.3m	£209	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
12	East Ayrshire	£24.5m	£203	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
13	Blackpool	£28.9m	£203
14	Wirral	£65.1m	£200
15	Liverpool	£100.0m	£199
16	Caerphilly	£35.0m	£199
17	Clackmannanshire	£10.2m	£197	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
18	Midlothian	£19.1m	£194	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
19	West Lothian	£35.5m	£193	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
20	Rhondda Cynon Taf	£46.5m	£192
21	Dumfries and Galloway	£28.1m	£192	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
22	Bridgend	£28.0m	£191
23	Barnsley	£47.4m	£191
24	Dundee City	£28.6m	£190	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
25	Hastings	£17.2m	£188
26	Sunderland	£53.2m	£188
27	Rotherham	£51.3m	£188
28	St. Helens	£35.0m	£187
29	Thanet	£26.3m	£187
30	Isle of Wight	£26.2m	£186
31	Swale	£29.0m	£185
32	Falkirk	£29.3m	£184	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
33	Halton	£23.7m	£182
34	Hyndburn	£15.3m	£181
35	Bolsover	£15.0m	£181
36	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£49.4m	£181
37	Fife	£67.2m	£180	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
38	Torfaen	£16.8m	£180
39	Denbighshire	£17.3m	£178
40	Stevenage	£15.9m	£176
41	Sefton	£49.9m	£176
42	Burnley	£17.1m	£176
43	South Ayrshire	£19.6m	£174	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
44	Renfrewshire	£32.2m	£172	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
45	Torbay	£23.9m	£171
46	Mansfield	£19.2m	£171
47	Rochdale	£39.3m	£170
48	Ashfield	£21.8m	£170
49	Tameside	£40.0m	£170
50	South Tyneside	£25.4m	£169

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

Does the order change when you count per person?

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