Benefit combinations
Anyone wishing to claim benefits can check what support is available on the Gov.uk website. Information about benefits and financial help can also be found on Lancashire County Council's benefits and financial help pages.
Summary
The benefit combination figures show the total number of working aged people who are claiming benefits, broken down by which benefit(s) they receive. Working aged people may claim benefits due to being unemployed, having a low income, the extra costs of living with a health condition or disability, or caring responsibilities.
Certain benefits are categorised as 'out of work benefits'. The figures for 'out of work' benefits include people who are not working but are looking for work and people who are not able to work or have a limited ability to work due to ill health or disability or caring responsibilities.
Not all benefits and individuals are included in these figures, and some benefits are claimed on behalf of a household rather than an individual. Further details are provided in the 'Things you need to know about the data' section below.
The latest figures are for February 2025.
Working age claimants
In Lancashire-12, 24.5% (198,249) of working age people were in receipt of benefits. The figure was higher in Lancashire-14, where 26.8% (268,887) of working age people were in receipt of benefits. The proportion of claimants in both Lancashire-12 and Lancashire-14 was higher than in England (22.9%), while Lancashire-12 had a lower proportion than the North West (26.6%).
Blackpool (38.9%) had the highest proportion of working age claimants in Lancashire-14, followed by Burnley (34.7%), Blackburn with Darwen (33.9%), Hyndburn (33.4%) and Pendle (33.1%). Ribble Valley (13.5%) had the lowest proportion, followed by South Ribble (19.2%) and Chorley (19.7%).
Compared to the previous year, the number of working age people in receipt of benefits in Lancashire-12 increased by 5.2%, up from 23.3% (184,247) in February 2024. In Lancashire-14, the rate of increase was slightly lower at 5.0%, up from 25.5% (250,451) working age claimants in February 2024. This growth in claimants was higher than the increase seen in England (4.8%).
All local authorities in Lancashire-14 saw a growth in the number of working age claimants compared to the previous year. Pendle (10.2%) saw the largest percentage increase, followed by Blackburn with Darwen (7.7%), Hyndburn (6.5%), Burnley (6.2%), Preston (6.0%), Ribble Valley (5.6%) and Rossendale (5.4%). The lowest percentage increase was seen in Blackpool (1.5%).
'Out of work' benefits (working age claimants)
In Lancashire-12, 15.7% (123,923) of working age people were in receipt of 'out of work' benefits. The figure was higher in Lancashire-14, where 17.4% (170,607) of working age people were in receipt of 'out of work' benefits. The proportion of claimants in both Lancashire-12 and Lancashire-14 was higher than in England (14.7%), while Lancashire-12 had a lower proportion than the North West (17.5%).
Blackpool (27.2%) had the highest proportion of 'out of work' benefits claimants in Lancashire-14, followed by Burnley (23.2%), Hyndburn (22.3%), Blackburn with Darwen (22.1%), and Pendle (21.6%). Ribble Valley (7.5%) had the lowest proportion, followed by South Ribble (11.5%) and Chorley (12.1%).
Compared to the previous year, the number of working age people in receipt of 'out of work' benefits in Lancashire-12 increased by 10.2%, up from 14.2% (112,552) in February 2024. In Lancashire-14, the rate of increase was slightly higher at 10.3%, up from 15.7% (154,688) working age claimants in February 2024. This growth in claimants was lower than the increase seen in England (12.0%).
All local authorities in Lancashire-14 saw a growth in 'out of work' benefits claimants compared to the previous year. Pendle (18.1%) saw the largest percentage increase, followed by Blackburn with Darwen (14.4%), Hyndburn (11.5%), Preston (11.1%) and Burnley (10.5%). The lowest percentage increase was seen in Ribble Valley (6.2%).
Source: Benefit combinations (working age and out of work) from the Department for Work and Pensions via Stat-Xplore. Population estimates from the Office for National Statistics via the National On-line Manpower Information System, powered by LG Inform Plus.
Things you need to know about the data
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publishes a quarterly count of the total number of people claiming benefits, including 'out of work benefits', for both people who are working age and who are above state pension age (only working age claimant data are included in this article). Only benefits that are paid or administered by the DWP are included in the figures. Child benefit and tax credits are not included as these are administered by HM Revenue & Customs.
A person claiming benefits is defined here as someone who is claiming a benefit for themselves, or in the case of universal credit (UC), pension credit (PC) and housing benefit (HB), someone who is part of a single or couple benefit claim. For household-level benefits (UC, PC and HB), both the main claimant and partner (if applicable) are included in the statistics as separate individuals.
For most benefits, these figures show the number of people who are receiving benefit payments. For carer’s allowance (CA), disability living allowance (DLA), attendance allowance (AA), and some personal independence payment (PIP), the figures also include people who have entitlement to benefits but their payments have been suspended (for example, if they are in hospital).
Benefit combinations: working age claimants
Working age benefits include bereavement support payment, widow's benefit or bereavement benefit (BSP/WB/BB), carer's allowance (CA), disability living allowance (DLA), housing benefit (HB), industrial injuries disablement benefit (IIDB), incapacity benefits (INCAP – see definition below), income support (IS), job seeker's allowance (JSA), pension credit (PC), personal independence payment (PIP), universal credit out of work (UC OOW) where there is a requirement (conditionality regime) of 'searching for work', 'preparing for work' or 'planning for work', universal credit with no work requirements (UC NWR) where the conditionality regime is 'no work requirements', and universal credit working (UC W) where the conditionality includes both 'working with requirements' and 'working with no requirements'.
The incapacity benefits (INCAP) grouping is used to refer to people who are claiming certain benefits and combinations of benefits to help with living costs if they are unable to work or have a limited ability to work due to a disability or health condition. INCAP includes employment and support allowance (ESA), incapacity benefit (IB), income support (IS) where IB is claimed at the same time, and severe disablement allowance (SDA).
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provides claimant counts based on whether a person is classified as working age. To calculate proportions of claimants, the age band 16-64 is used here. As a result of increases to state pension age, a small portion of claimants are not included in the figures presented here.
Benefit combinations: out of work benefits
The DWP classes the following benefits and combinations as 'out of work benefits': incapacity benefits (INCAP – see definition above), income support (IS) where carer’s allowance (CA) is not also in payment, jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), pension credit (PC) where carer’s allowance (CA) is not also in payment, severe disablement allowance (SDA), universal credit out of work (UC OOW) where the conditionality regime is one of 'searching for work', 'preparing for work' or 'planning for work', and universal credit no work requirements (UC NWR) where the conditionality regime is 'no work requirements'.
People in receipt of carer’s allowance are not counted as 'out of work' since they may or may not also be in paid employment in addition to their caring responsibilities.
Limitations
These statistics should only be used for looking at the whole, combined picture for DWP benefit claimants. More frequent and detailed data is published for individual benefits, with further information available on the Lancashire Insight income, earnings and benefits articles .
Households can include couples that are a mix of people who are under or over state pension age or who are and are not unemployed. As a result of how claimants are counted for household-level benefits (UC, PC and HB), these figures can include people who are jointly claiming a benefit which can differ from their age or employment status due to their partner's circumstances. For example, the figures include working age claimants of pension credit as they are the partner of the primary claimant (who is above state pension age). Similarly, for universal credit where the conditionality regime is 'working with requirements', this can include some claimants who are not employed but have a partner with low earnings.
The DWP apply statistical disclosure control to protect anonymity. This means that the true values may be slightly above or below the published figures.
Page updated 30 September 2025