How does my area compare?

Enfield has the highest spending on Universal Credit per person aged 16 to 64 in 2024-25.

Help with living costs for working-age people on a low income, in or out of work. Shown in cash terms, not adjusted for inflation.

Per person aged 16 to 64, low to high

Under £1,071
£1,071 to £1,355
£1,355 to £1,640
£1,640 to £1,924
£1,924 to £2,209
£2,209 and over

Spending on Universal Credit, per person aged 16 to 64, 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 16 to 64 are drawn in dark lines.

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, Universal Credit: yearly spending at the rate in May 2023 and in May 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.

What changed: Universal Credit
May 2023	£49.0bn
Population	+£648.0m
Share claiming	+£22.0bn
Payment size	+£15.8bn
May 2026	£87.5bn

The share claiming is the number of households claiming per person aged 16 to 64. 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 working-age benefits per person aged 16 to 64, 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.

Expected level = −£567 + £3,670 × share aged 0 to 15 − £115 × share aged 66 and over − £170 × deprivation decile + £257 × ln(median pay) + £432 × Wales + £94 × Scotland. Fitted by ordinary least squares across 348 local authorities. R² = 0.85. Gold dots are above the expected level and grey dots are below it.

Every local authority

Spending on Universal Credit, 2024-25. Rank is for per person aged 16 to 64, 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 Universal Credit for every local authority, 2024-25
Rank
1	Enfield	£718.4m	£2,168	£3,365
2	Brent	£674.5m	£1,898	£2,719
3	Haringey	£517.3m	£1,927	£2,694
4	Hackney	£534.1m	£1,988	£2,694
5	Blackpool	£230.6m	£1,608	£2,616
6	Barking and Dagenham	£410.6m	£1,748	£2,614
7	Hartlepool	£150.8m	£1,541	£2,524
8	Thanet	£206.5m	£1,452	£2,492
9	Birmingham	£1.8bn	£1,529	£2,338
10	Hastings	£130.5m	£1,434	£2,330
11	Middlesbrough	£226.8m	£1,466	£2,324
12	Tower Hamlets	£600.8m	£1,787	£2,298
13	Great Yarmouth	£134.7m	£1,338	£2,296
14	Oldham	£354.2m	£1,413	£2,284
15	Newham	£634.4m	£1,672	£2,281
16	Ealing	£610.4m	£1,574	£2,275
17	Lewisham	£486.1m	£1,607	£2,242
18	Knowsley	£227.2m	£1,405	£2,242
19	Burnley	£137.1m	£1,382	£2,242
20	Croydon	£599.0m	£1,466	£2,215
21	Bradford	£767.9m	£1,372	£2,206
22	Barnet	£578.2m	£1,423	£2,192
23	Rochdale	£315.4m	£1,343	£2,170
24	Blackburn with Darwen	£218.9m	£1,354	£2,145
25	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£378.1m	£1,376	£2,129
26	Wolverhampton	£373.1m	£1,330	£2,119
27	Walsall	£383.5m	£1,302	£2,118
28	Manchester	£888.3m	£1,509	£2,117
29	Hounslow	£433.7m	£1,445	£2,113
30	Hyndburn	£112.2m	£1,306	£2,107
31	North Ayrshire	£167.7m	£1,253	£2,099
32	Liverpool	£719.4m	£1,416	£2,089
33	Inverclyde	£101.2m	£1,285	£2,087
34	South Tyneside	£190.2m	£1,262	£2,085
35	Halton	£169.5m	£1,292	£2,080
36	Blaenau Gwent	£86.7m	£1,281	£2,077
37	Tendring	£176.9m	£1,131	£2,074
38	Sandwell	£464.9m	£1,316	£2,070
39	Merthyr Tydfil	£74.5m	£1,269	£2,064
40	West Dunbartonshire	£114.3m	£1,287	£2,060
41	North East Lincolnshire	£195.5m	£1,224	£2,046
42	Redcar and Cleveland	£165.4m	£1,192	£2,040
43	Waltham Forest	£401.9m	£1,416	£2,025
44	Pendle	£120.9m	£1,214	£2,004
45	Peterborough	£283.2m	£1,264	£1,998
46	Torfaen	£113.2m	£1,204	£1,989
47	Islington	£344.3m	£1,522	£1,988
48	Eastbourne	£121.5m	£1,165	£1,984
49	Southend-on-Sea	£224.3m	£1,216	£1,970
50	Harlow	£122.9m	£1,253	£1,968

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are per person aged 16 to 64 unless a column says otherwise. Sources: Department for Work and Pensions, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland.

Every measureThe full list, as plain links

Does the order change when you count per person?

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Is spending higher or lower than expected?

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