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, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

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

Selected Denbighshire: £5,438 per resident, 2023-24, 16th of 348 local authorities.

Per resident, low to high

  1. Under £3,471
  2. £3,471 to £3,890
  3. £3,890 to £4,310
  4. £4,310 to £4,729
  5. £4,729 to £5,148
  6. £5,148 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, and the selected area in gold.

TotalPer resident1348Tendring 1East Lindsey 2Blackpool 3North Ayrshire 4Blaenau Gwent 5Neath Port Talbot 6Inverclyde 7Thanet 8Rother 9Hartlepool 10Denbighshire 16

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Denbighshire, 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
£232.7mFebruary 2023+£3.5mPopulation+£6.7mShare claiming+£30.2mPayment size£273.1mMarch 2026
What changed: State Pension
February 2023£232.7m
Population+£3.5m
Share claiming+£6.7m
Payment size+£30.2m
March 2026£273.1m
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

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£910.5m£5,899
2East Lindsey£849.7m£5,854
3Blackpool£818.5m£5,743
4North Ayrshire£761.9m£5,697Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
5Blaenau Gwent£382.4m£5,666
6Neath Port Talbot£794.1m£5,602
7Inverclyde£439.5m£5,588Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
8Thanet£783.8m£5,567
9Rother£528.9m£5,565
10Hartlepool£530.5m£5,543
11North Norfolk£571.8m£5,526
12Torbay£770.2m£5,512
13Isle of Wight£776.3m£5,499
14West Dunbartonshire£488.3m£5,498Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
15Great Yarmouth£548.9m£5,466
16Denbighshire£528.7m£5,438
17Conwy£622.2m£5,428
18Dumfries and Galloway£791.7m£5,421Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
19Merthyr Tydfil£315.4m£5,370
20Redcar and Cleveland£735.4m£5,337
21South Tyneside£796.0m£5,317
22Caerphilly£935.2m£5,305
23South Ayrshire£593.7m£5,298Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
24Torfaen£491.7m£5,257
25Hastings£478.8m£5,256
26Eastbourne£545.5m£5,251
27Knowsley£835.2m£5,246
28Wirral£1.7bn£5,217
29Sunderland£1.5bn£5,184
30Wyre£600.0m£5,149
31Folkestone and Hythe£571.1m£5,137
32Sefton£1.5bn£5,133
33Isle of Anglesey£354.8m£5,133
34East Ayrshire£619.1m£5,125Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
35Carmarthenshire£974.9m£5,124
36Pembrokeshire£634.3m£5,072
37St. Helens£938.4m£5,027
38Arun£847.0m£5,020
39County Durham£2.7bn£5,012
40Halton£652.3m£5,010
41Torridge£346.6m£5,007
42Rhondda Cynon Taf£1.2bn£5,001
43Bridgend£733.6m£5,001
44East Suffolk£1.2bn£4,994
45Enfield£1.7bn£4,993
46Dorset£1.9bn£4,988
47Liverpool£2.5bn£4,984
48North East Lincolnshire£788.0m£4,966
49Clackmannanshire£256.9m£4,944Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
50Dundee City£741.0m£4,933Estimated, 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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