Who Gets What

How does my area compare?

Enfield has the highest spending on working-age benefits per person aged 16 to 64 in 2024-25.

Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker's Allowance, Income Support and Carer's Allowance, with Carer Support Payment in Scotland. Disability benefits are paid at all ages, so they are shown separately. Shown in cash terms, not adjusted for inflation.

Spending on working-age benefits, per person aged 16 to 64, 2024-25, by local authority

Per person aged 16 to 64, low to high

  1. Under £1,335
  2. £1,335 to £1,675
  3. £1,675 to £2,015
  4. £2,015 to £2,355
  5. £2,355 to £2,695
  6. £2,695 and over
  • Estimated value
Spending on working-age benefits, 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.

TotalPer residentPer person aged 16 to 641350Enfield 1Blackpool 2Hackney 3Hartlepool 4Haringey 5Brent 6Thanet 7Knowsley 8Blaenau Gwent 9Barking and Dagenham 10

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, Carer's Allowance and Carer Support Payment: 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.

Benefit
£3.1bnFebruary 2023+£37.8mPopulation+£535.5mShare claiming+£649.6mPayment size£4.3bnMarch 2026
What changed: Carer's Allowance and Carer Support Payment
February 2023£3.1bn
Population+£37.8m
Share claiming+£535.5m
Payment size+£649.6m
March 2026£4.3bn
The share claiming is the number of people 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. Scottish areas are left out because Social Security Scotland pays this benefit.

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.

Chart step
This chart needs JavaScript. Each area's expected level is on its area page.
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 working-age benefits, 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 working-age benefits for every local authority, 2024-25
RankNotes
1Enfield£809.4m£2,442£3,791
2Blackpool£300.4m£2,095£3,409
3Hackney£629.1m£2,342£3,173
4Hartlepool£188.6m£1,927£3,156
5Haringey£598.8m£2,230£3,118
6Brent£759.9m£2,138£3,064
7Thanet£252.0m£1,772£3,042
8Knowsley£307.6m£1,902£3,035
9Blaenau Gwent£125.0m£1,846£2,993
10Barking and Dagenham£467.2m£1,989£2,975
11Middlesbrough£289.2m£1,870£2,964
12Merthyr Tydfil£105.4m£1,795£2,918
13Hastings£162.2m£1,782£2,897
14Great Yarmouth£168.1m£1,670£2,865
15West Dunbartonshire£158.6m£1,786£2,859Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
16North Ayrshire£227.7m£1,701£2,850Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
17Birmingham£2.2bn£1,864£2,850
18Inverclyde£137.9m£1,751£2,844Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
19Liverpool£972.1m£1,913£2,823
20Burnley£172.0m£1,734£2,812
21Oldham£432.3m£1,724£2,787
22Bradford£961.5m£1,718£2,762
23Neath Port Talbot£239.9m£1,682£2,758
24Rochdale£399.2m£1,699£2,746
25Kingston upon Hull, City of£487.6m£1,775£2,745
26South Tyneside£250.3m£1,661£2,744
27Redcar and Cleveland£221.0m£1,592£2,725
28Hyndburn£143.8m£1,675£2,701
29Blackburn with Darwen£275.6m£1,705£2,701
30Walsall£484.5m£1,644£2,675
31Tendring£228.1m£1,458£2,673
32Torfaen£151.5m£1,611£2,662
33Halton£216.9m£1,653£2,662
34Tower Hamlets£692.4m£2,060£2,648
35Sunderland£466.6m£1,628£2,628
36Lewisham£568.3m£1,879£2,622
37Wolverhampton£460.9m£1,643£2,618
38Manchester£1.1bn£1,866£2,617
39Sandwell£587.1m£1,662£2,614
40North East Lincolnshire£247.9m£1,552£2,594
41Newham£721.4m£1,901£2,594
42Glasgow City£1.2bn£1,840£2,593Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
43Caerphilly£280.0m£1,589£2,590
44Ealing£687.3m£1,773£2,561
45Pendle£153.7m£1,542£2,547
46Torbay£201.9m£1,444£2,526
47Wirral£492.2m£1,500£2,516
48Denbighshire£141.2m£1,443£2,515
49Croydon£676.6m£1,656£2,502
50Nottingham£580.0m£1,755£2,500

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, Social Security Scotland, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland.

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