How does my area compare?

Caerphilly has the highest spending on other benefits per resident in 2023-24.

Bereavement Benefit, Incapacity Benefit and Severe Disablement Allowance. Shown in 2026-27 prices, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Spending on other benefits, per resident, 2023-24, by local authority

Per resident, low to high

  1. Under £4.47
  2. £4.47 to £5.40
  3. £5.40 to £6.32
  4. £6.32 to £7.24
  5. £7.24 to £8.17
  6. £8.17 and over
  • Estimated value
Spending on other benefits, 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.

TotalPer resident1350Caerphilly 1East Renfrewshire 2Derbyshire Dales 3Bassetlaw 4Orkney Islands 5Redditch 6Harborough 7Angus 8Denbighshire 9North Warwickshire 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.

Benefit
£120.7bnFebruary 2023+£2.5bnPopulation+£5.2bnShare claiming+£15.0bnPayment size£143.4bnMarch 2026
What changed: State Pension
February 2023£120.7bn
Population+£2.5bn
Share claiming+£5.2bn
Payment size+£15.0bn
March 2026£143.4bn
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.

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 other benefits, 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 other benefits for every local authority, 2023-24
RankNotes
1Caerphilly£1.9m£11
2East Renfrewshire£1.0m£10Estimated
3Derbyshire Dales£0.74m£10
4Bassetlaw£1.2m£10
5Orkney Islands£0.22m£10Estimated
6Redditch£0.88m£10
7Harborough£1.0m£9.99
8Angus£1.0m£9.07Estimated
9Denbighshire£0.88m£9.05
10North Warwickshire£0.59m£8.95
11Reigate and Banstead£1.4m£8.92
12North Somerset£1.9m£8.73
13Conwy£1.00m£8.71
14Calderdale£1.8m£8.66
15Pembrokeshire£1.1m£8.64
16West Dunbartonshire£0.77m£8.64Estimated
17Maidstone£1.6m£8.58
18St. Helens£1.6m£8.57
19West Lancashire£1.0m£8.54
20Cumberland£2.3m£8.43
21Bolsover£0.69m£8.40
22East Lothian£0.95m£8.39Estimated
23Falkirk£1.3m£8.35Estimated
24Aberdeenshire£2.2m£8.30Estimated
25Powys£1.1m£8.27
26Isle of Anglesey£0.57m£8.24
27Rother£0.78m£8.23
28South Lanarkshire£2.7m£8.20Estimated
29Halton£1.1m£8.18
30Harlow£0.79m£8.17
31Neath Port Talbot£1.2m£8.16
32Swansea£2.0m£8.13
33Wrexham£1.1m£8.13
34Blackpool£1.2m£8.09
35Melton£0.43m£8.07
36Argyll and Bute£0.71m£8.05Estimated
37Blaby£0.84m£8.01
38Mid Devon£0.68m£8.00
39Merthyr Tydfil£0.47m£7.98
40West Lindsey£0.78m£7.97
41Wirral£2.6m£7.97
42Gwynedd£0.96m£7.95
43South Ayrshire£0.89m£7.92Estimated
44Tamworth£0.64m£7.92
45County Durham£4.2m£7.89
46Clackmannanshire£0.41m£7.88Estimated
47Folkestone and Hythe£0.87m£7.86
48Rotherham£2.1m£7.84
49Newark and Sherwood£0.98m£7.79
50Carmarthenshire£1.5m£7.78

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, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland.

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