Working Age Benefits
November 2007
July 2008
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), via their online Tabulation Tool, releases local authority area data for the numbers of Working Age Benefit Claimants. Working age is defined as females aged 16 to 59 and males aged 16 to 64. The results for the Lancashire authorities have been downloaded and detailed in this research monitor. Figures down to the ward level are also published on the DWP website, but at the time of writing this article, the most up-to-date small area results were instead on the NOMIS labour market statistics website.
The benefit results are arranged hierarchically and claimants are assigned to the topmost benefit that they receive. Thus a person who is a lone parent and receives Incapacity Benefit would be classified as 'Incapacity benefits', whereas someone receiving both Bereavement Benefit and Disability Living Allowance would be classified as 'Disabled'. For this reason the group 'Lone Parents' will not contain all lone parents claiming Income Support. Some will be included in the 'Incapacity benefits' group instead.
| Job Seekers: | Jobseeker's Allowance claimants |
| Incapacity Benefits: | Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance claimants |
| Lone Parents: | Income Support claimants with a child under 16 and no partner |
| Carers: | Carer's Allowance claimants |
| Others on Income-Related Benefit: | Other Income Support (including IS Disability premium) Related Benefit or Pension Credit claimants under State Pension age |
| Disabled: | Disability Living Allowance |
| Bereaved: | Widow's Benefit, Bereavement Benefit or Industrial Death Benefit claimants |
The main advantage of this dataset is that the double counting of claimants of multiple benefits has been removed so that users will get an accurate picture of benefit claiming and worklessness at a small area level.
Complementary Research Monitors
Lancashire Profile contains a selection of complementary research monitors that consider various welfare payments. In particular, the Earnings, Income and Benefits Section contains details of the importance of various forms of benefits as sources of income for working age Lancashire residents. The section includes articles on Income Support, Incapacity Benefit and Severe Disability Allowance and Attendance and Disability Living Allowance.
Results for Lancashire
Table 1 details the Lancashire authority results for November 2000 and November 2007. Adjustments to the benefits system over the intervening years mean that the percentage change column may be somewhat misleading because it does not present a strict comparison of like with like.
A sustained period of economic growth has lasted for a number of years, and between the two dates there has been some reduction in working age benefit caseload numbers. At the national level, the number was down by -3.6% over the seven-year period to 5.1 million. For the North West, there was a more noticeable reduction of -7.4% over the same period.
Unfortunately, figures are not published at the Lancashire level. The district authority numbers could be summed to give an approximation of the results, but since they are rounded to the nearest ten, the resultant figure would be open to some margin of error.
At the local authority level, most areas recorded decreases over the seven-year period. The largest fall of -11.5% was in West Lancashire, whilst Lancaster (-10.1%) also posted a significant reduction. In November 2007, the two unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool had by far the largest working age benefit caseload figures of any of the 14 Lancashire authorities. The figure for Blackburn with Darwen of 17,620 had increased by 2.6% between the two time periods, whilst Blackpool (20,030) only recorded a -0.6% decrease over the seven-year period.
| Average for the Year to November 2007 | Average for the Year to November 2000 | November 2000 to November 2007 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % of Working-Age Population | Number | % Change | |
| Burnley | 10,860 | 20.2 | 10,950 | -0.8 |
| Chorley | 7,750 | 11.8 | 8,070 | -4.0 |
| Fylde | 4,950 | 11.4 | 4,990 | -0.8 |
| Hyndburn | 9,200 | 18.6 | 9,100 | 1.1 |
| Lancaster | 11,600 | 12.8 | 12,910 | -10.1 |
| Pendle | 9,110 | 16.6 | 9,360 | -2.7 |
| Preston | 13,970 | 16.5 | 14,500 | -3.7 |
| Ribble Valley | 2,800 | 8.1 | 3,070 | -8.8 |
| Rossendale | 6,290 | 15.2 | 6,740 | -6.7 |
| South Ribble | 7,100 | 10.8 | 7,280 | -2.5 |
| West Lancashire | 10,000 | 15.1 | 11,300 | -11.5 |
| Wyre | 8,340 | 13.3 | 8,840 | -5.7 |
| Blackburn with Darwen | 17,620 | 20.6 | 17,180 | 2.6 |
| Blackpool | 20,030 | 23.6 | 20,160 | -0.6 |
| North West | 729,390 | 17.1 | 787,820 | -7.4 |
| Great Britain | 5,124,680 | 13.9 | 5,314,070 | -3.6 |
| Source Department for Work and Pensions | ||||
Ward Level Results
Figure 1 details the numbers of working age benefit claimants for the 301 Lancashire wards split by four broad groups, whilst Table 2 shows the 20 wards with the highest and lowest numbers.
In total, 24 of the 301 Lancashire wards recorded working age claimant numbers equal to or in excess of 1,000. A total of eight of these wards were in Blackpool, seven in Blackburn and Darwen, four in Preston, three in Burnley, one in Fleetwood, and one in Nelson. Figure 1, shows the locations of these 24 wards within these core urban areas.
Table 2 reveals that Bloomfield Ward in Blackpool was alone in recording more than 2,000 working age benefit claimants, and that the neighbouring ward of Claremont was in second place with 1,910.
| Rank | Local Authority | Ward | Number of Claimants |
| 1 | Blackpool | Bloomfield | 2,075 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Blackpool | Claremont | 1,910 |
| 3 | Blackburn with Darwen | Shadsworth with Whitebirk | 1,805 |
| 4 | Preston | Ribbleton | 1,530 |
| 5 | Blackpool | Park | 1,460 |
| 6 | Blackpool | Brunswick | 1,430 |
| 7 | Blackburn with Darwen | Wensley Fold | 1,420 |
| 8 | Blackpool | Talbot | 1,395 |
| 9 | Audley | Blackburn with Darwen | 1,365 |
| 10 | Preston | St Matthew's | 1,250 |
| 292 | Pendle | Blacko and Higherford | 60 |
| 293 | Pendle | Foulridge | 60 |
| 294 | Pendle | Higham and Pendleside | 60 |
| 295 | Ribble Valley | Ribchester | 55 |
| 296 | Wyre | Brock | 55 |
| 297 | Fylde | Ribby-with-Wrea | 50 |
| 298 | Ribble Valley | Aighton, Bailey and Chaigley | 45 |
| 299 | Ribble Valley | Bowland, Newton and Slaidburn | 45 |
| 300 | Ribble Valley | Chipping | 45 |
| 301 | Ribble Valley | Wiswell and Pendleton | 40 |
| Source Department for Work and Pensions and NOMIS | |||
Table 2 also reveals that a number of rural wards in the Ribble Valley and Pendle districts recorded the lowest numbers of claimants along with one ward in Wyre and another in Fylde.
For further details, or if you have any ideas for improving the content of this article, please contact:
EconInfo@lancashire.gov.uk