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Income Support

This research monitor details Income Support statistics published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The focus is on the results for Lancashire local authorities and wards within the county. Income Support figures can be downloaded from the Statistics section of the DWP website by clicking on the DWP Tabulation Tool option. Ward and Super Output Area numbers can also be accessed via the same link, but at the time of writing this article, the most up-to-date ward results were on the NOMIS Labour Market Statistics website.

The DWP website contains information on Income Support entitlement requirements in the A-Z list of services.

Entitlement to Income Support

Income Support (IS) is for people on low incomes. Claimants may be in employment, but do not have to be available for full-time work to be entitled to the benefit. People who are required to be available to work full-time claim Jobseeker's Allowance. The main types of claimants who receive IS are lone parents, the long and short-term sick, people with disabilities and other special groups. Claimants are, with a few exceptions, aged between 16 and 59.

The amount of Income Support that a claimant can receive depends mainly on their age, if they are single or have a partner, earnings and hours of work of any partner, whether they have dependent children or have special needs such as disability or caring responsibilities, and whether they are liable for certain housing costs such as mortgage interest repayments. Savings over £16,000 usually mean that a person cannot get Income Support. There is also a large range of personal allowances that are too comprehensive to be detailed in this short report, but can viewed on the DWP website.

Caseload Figures

Table 1 presents details of average weekly payments to claimants at the National, North West, County and District levels for November 2007. Average payments for all claimants amounted to £80.97 per week at the national level, whilst for the Lancashire County Council area, the average was £1.87 per week less at £79.10. At the local area level, average payment figures varied between a high of £84.57 in Blackburn with Darwen to only £68.63 in Ribble Valley.

At the National level, there were over 2.1 million claimants to Income Support, 301,370 in the North West region and 37,840 in the Lancashire County Council area, which excludes Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool unitary authorities.

Between November 2006 and November 2007, the number of Income Support claimants at the national level declined by -1.6%. For the county, there was a yearly decrease of -2.3%, exactly the same as the reduction for the North West as a whole.

For all claimant families in the Lancashire County Council area, the benefit is collectively worth just under £3.0 million per week or approximately £156 million per year.

At the local area level, the two unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen (7,660) and Blackpool (8,550) recorded the highest caseload figures followed by Preston with 5,860. In comparison, the mainly rural Ribble Valley district only had a caseload of 690.

Leaving the Unemployment Claimant Count to Receive Income Support

The lancashireprofile website contains a table that details the reasons people give for leaving the unemployment claimant count. One of the reasons is to claim Income Support instead. The results for January 2008 reveal that for the broader Lancashire area, that includes Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool unitary authorities, only 55 of the 3,425 that left the claimant count in that particular month stated that they were leaving to claim Income Support. Given the significant numbers in the 'Not known' and 'Failed to sign' categories, it is likely that the actual figure may be higher.

Ward Data

The ward-level numbers are published on the DWP and the NOMIS websites, whilst the percentages of claimants are calculated by using population figures for the 16-59 age-group derived from the 2005 ward population estimates (see Data Download Centre).

The caseload figures in Table 1 for the Lancashire County Council area and the two unitary authorities together sum to 54,050, which is 70 more than the total for all the Lancashire wards. The figures in Table 1 are rounded to the nearest 10 which will account for the variation.

Table 2 highlights the 12 wards with the highest claimant rates. The two central Blackpool wards of Bloomfield and Claremont together recorded 1,900 Income Support claimants, and were the only two Lancashire wards to have rates in excess of 20%. At the other extreme, a total of 78 of the 301 Lancashire wards recorded rates of less than 2%.

For the broader Lancashire area as a whole, (includes Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool unitary authorities) Income Support claimants represent 6.6% of the resident adults aged 15-59. For the Lancashire County Council area, which excludes the two unitaries, the claimant rate is 5.6%.

Figure 1 presents a geographic analysis of Income Support claimants for all the wards in the broader Lancashire area, with the results split by five broad groups. Concentrations of wards with high percentages are particularly apparent in central Blackpool, Preston, Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley and Skelmersdale.

Figure 1 Income Support Claim Rates in Lancashire Wards, November 2007

Source Department for Work and Pensions/Lancashire County Council

Please note that the following contact person can only respond to queries about the figures used in this report. He cannot answer enquiries about how to claim Income Support or any concerns about individual claims.

For further details, or if you have any ideas for improving the content of this article, please contact:
Bryan Moulding
Tel 01772 534172
Email Bryan.Moulding@lancashire.gov.uk