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Working Age Benefits
May 2008

November 2008

National Performance Indicators:
NI 152: Working age people on out of work benefits
NI 153: Working age people claiming out of work benefits in the worst performing neighbourhoods

Central government has set (External) 198 priority measures for local government . Indicators NI 152 and 153 target certain out-of-work benefits for working people. The benefits include Jobseeker's Allowance, Lone Parents on Income Support, Incapacity Benefit, and others on income-related benefits.

Details of results for the national indicators can be found on the (External) Floor Targets Interactive section of the Department for Communities and Local Government website .

The two indicators are identified as priority measures Lancashire County Council as part of the Economic Development theme of the Lancashire Local Area Agreement .

This research monitor looks at all working age benefits in Lancashire to provide a broad analysis of the situation. The numbers include some benefit types (e.g. carers) that are excluded from the national performance indicator figures.

Note For NI 153, 83 lower-layer super output areas in Lancashire have been identified as the worst performing neighbourhoods . The (External) Department for Work and Pensions website contains the latest lower-layer super output area figures.

Summary

At the national level, the working age benefit caseload amounted to 14% of the working age population. Eight of the 14 authorities in the broader Lancashire area had rates in excess of the national average. In Burnley and the two unitaries of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool, the rates were in excess of 20%. In general terms however, the caseload has declined over recent years.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), via their online (External) 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.

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.

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 in specific areas.

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 allowance and disability living allowance .

Results for Lancashire

Table 1 details the Lancashire authority results for May 2000 and May 2008. 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 lasted between the two dates in question and there has been some reduction in working age benefit caseload numbers. The downturn in economy as a whole may have some impact on this trend however other factors will come in to play. For instance, Incapacity benefit is by far the largest benefit type and accounted for half the national total in May 2008 and any changes to entitlement criteria over the years could have a noticeable impact.

At the national level, the number was down by -4.3% over the seven-year period to 5.14 million. For the North West, there was a more noticeable reduction of -8.4% over the same period.

Unfortunately, figures are not published at the Lancashire level, but adding up the district results gives an overall estimate of slightly over 132,000 for the broader Lancashire area that includes all 14 local authorities.

At the local authority level, most areas recorded decreases over the seven-year period. The largest fall of -14.0% was in West Lancashire, whilst Lancaster (-11.6%) also posted a significant reduction. In May 2008, 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 and these two areas were alone in recording increases over the eight year period.

The figure for Blackburn with Darwen of 17,800 had increased by 2.5% between the two time periods, whilst Blackpool (19,300) recorded a 3.0% increase.

At the national level, it is estimated that the caseload for working age benefits amounts to 14% of the working age population. Six Lancashire authorities have percentages below the national average whilst the other eight have rates that are above. The two unitary authorities of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool plus Burnley district were the three areas with rates in excess of 20%. Out of 408 authorities across the country, Blackpool had the10th highest caseload rate, with Blackburn with Darwen in 24th position and Burnley in 36th place. In contrast the 8.1% rate for Ribble Valley placed it in 340th position.

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, 25 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, with a further eight in Blackburn and Darwen. An additional four were in Preston, three in Burnley and one each in Pendle and Lancaster districts.

Map showing how many working-age benefit claimants there are in each of Lancashire's wards in November 2007 - see text for details Source Department for Work and Pensions

Table 2 reveals that Bloomfield ward in Blackpool was alone in recording more than 1,900 working age benefit claimants, and that the neighbouring ward of Claremont was in second place with 1,895. Shadsworth with Whitebirk on the outskirts of Blackburn was in third place with 1,810. All three recorded numbers well in excess of any other ward.

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.

This page was compiled by Bryan Moulding .

All enquiries from the media should be sent to Corporate.Communications@lancashire.gov.uk .

Any other questions about the content of this page may be sent to EconInfo@lancashire.gov.uk .

For all enquiries about the county council's services , contact the Customer Service Centre on 0845 0530000 (01772 530000) or at Enquiries@css.lancscc.gov.uk .

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