Who Gets What

How does my area compare?

Tower Hamlets has the highest spending on Pension Credit per person aged 66 and over in 2024-25.

Extra money for people over State Pension age who have a low income. Shown in cash terms, not adjusted for inflation.

Spending on Pension Credit, per person aged 66 and over, 2024-25, by local authority

Per person aged 66 and over, low to high

  1. Under £453
  2. £453 to £697
  3. £697 to £941
  4. £941 to £1,185
  5. £1,185 to £1,429
  6. £1,429 and over
Spending on Pension Credit, per person aged 66 and over, 2024-25, 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 350 ranked local authorities. It joins the area's rank for each way of counting. The 10 highest per person aged 66 and over are drawn in dark lines.

TotalPer residentPer person aged 66 and over1350Tower Hamlets 1Hackney 2Newham 3Islington 4Westminster 5Haringey 6Southwark 7Brent 8Lambeth 9Camden 10

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, Pension Credit: 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. Cash terms, not adjusted for inflation.

£4.8bnFebruary 2023+£103.1mPopulation−£59.1mShare claiming+£1.4bnPayment size£6.3bnMarch 2026
What changed: Pension Credit
February 2023£4.8bn
Population+£103.1m
Share claiming−£59.1m
Payment size+£1.4bn
March 2026£6.3bn
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?

Spending on pensioner benefits per person aged 66 and over, 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. Cash terms, not adjusted for inflation.

Chart step
This chart needs JavaScript. Each area's expected level is on its area page.
Expected level = £12,909 + £3,353 × share aged 0 to 15 − £1,419 × share aged 66 and over − £40 × deprivation decile − £91 × ln(median pay) + £207 × Wales + £80 × Scotland. Fitted by ordinary least squares across 346 local authorities. R² = 0.35. Gold dots are above the expected level and grey dots are below it.

Every local authority

Spending on Pension Credit, 2024-25. Rank is for per person aged 66 and over, 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.

Spending on Pension Credit for every local authority, 2024-25
RankNotes
1Tower Hamlets£46.9m£139£2,595
2Hackney£49.3m£184£2,374
3Newham£58.8m£155£2,275
4Islington£36.2m£160£1,812
5Westminster£43.0m£199£1,722
6Haringey£47.6m£177£1,709
7Southwark£44.8m£141£1,697
8Brent£66.8m£188£1,673
9Lambeth£45.2m£142£1,628
10Camden£39.1m£177£1,583
11Barking and Dagenham£28.8m£123£1,558
12Hammersmith and Fulham£29.5m£155£1,528
13Leicester£65.6m£170£1,514
14Ealing£68.1m£176£1,500
15Manchester£73.5m£125£1,437
16Kensington and Chelsea£28.1m£191£1,328
17Hounslow£45.4m£151£1,325
18Greenwich£38.9m£129£1,291
19Lewisham£36.1m£119£1,252
20Rushmoor£18.5m£175£1,215
21Waltham Forest£34.1m£120£1,215
22Enfield£52.9m£160£1,173
23Slough£17.4m£104£1,148
24Glasgow City£96.1m£148£1,141
25Redbridge£42.6m£132£1,125
26Wandsworth£35.2m£104£1,115
27Harrow£43.5m£161£1,086
28Liverpool£73.6m£145£1,007
29Birmingham£142.8m£121£985
30Sandwell£47.1m£133£982
31Barnet£56.2m£138£982
32Luton£24.1m£101£948
33Hillingdon£37.8m£115£934
34Nottingham£32.1m£97£877
35Reading£18.2m£100£874
36Knowsley£22.5m£139£855
37Merton£22.7m£103£835
38Wolverhampton£35.3m£126£832
39Croydon£42.8m£105£806
40Blackburn with Darwen£17.4m£108£803
41Salford£26.5m£90£764
42Kingston upon Hull, City of£29.0m£106£724
43Hartlepool£13.0m£133£707
44Blackpool£19.9m£139£707
45Brighton and Hove£26.9m£95£707
46Peterborough£21.3m£95£702
47Newcastle upon Tyne£31.2m£98£701
48Middlesbrough£16.8m£109£691
49Bolton£33.6m£109£679
50Kingston upon Thames£16.6m£96£678

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are per person aged 66 and over unless a column says otherwise. Sources: Department for Work and Pensions, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland.

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