How does my area compare?

Blaenau Gwent has the highest spending on Employment and Support Allowance per person aged 16 to 64 in 2024-25.

Money for people whose illness or disability limits how much they can work. Shown in 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Per person aged 16 to 64, low to high

Under £219
£219 to £299
£299 to £380
£380 to £461
£461 to £541
£541 and over

Spending on Employment and Support Allowance, 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, Employment and Support Allowance: 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. 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation.

What changed: Employment and Support Allowance
February 2023	£13.4bn
Population	+£84.7m
Share claiming	−£6.2bn
Payment size	−£2.1bn
March 2026	£5.2bn

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.

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. 2026-27 prices, using CPI 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 Employment and Support Allowance, 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 Employment and Support Allowance for every local authority, 2024-25
Rank
1	Blaenau Gwent	£31.0m	£458	£743
2	Merthyr Tydfil	£24.0m	£409	£666
3	West Dunbartonshire	£36.7m	£413	£662
4	Neath Port Talbot	£56.0m	£392	£643
5	Glasgow City	£291.5m	£448	£632
6	Caerphilly	£68.0m	£386	£629
7	Rhondda Cynon Taf	£93.9m	£388	£624
8	Blackpool	£54.8m	£382	£622
9	Inverclyde	£30.0m	£381	£619
10	Knowsley	£61.0m	£377	£602
11	North Ayrshire	£47.5m	£355	£595
12	Liverpool	£202.4m	£398	£588
13	North Lanarkshire	£118.8m	£346	£539
14	Carmarthenshire	£58.8m	£309	£532
15	Bridgend	£47.4m	£322	£527
16	Dundee City	£51.5m	£345	£526
17	Torfaen	£29.7m	£316	£522
18	Wirral	£100.8m	£307	£515
19	Denbighshire	£28.9m	£295	£514
20	Torbay	£40.7m	£291	£509
21	Renfrewshire	£60.3m	£320	£501
22	Dumfries and Galloway	£41.6m	£285	£499
23	Chesterfield	£32.0m	£302	£495
24	Redcar and Cleveland	£40.1m	£289	£494
25	East Ayrshire	£36.2m	£299	£489
26	St. Helens	£56.4m	£299	£484
27	Clackmannanshire	£15.4m	£296	£478
28	Swansea	£75.6m	£302	£478
29	South Ayrshire	£30.8m	£274	£475
30	Mansfield	£33.1m	£292	£474
31	Sefton	£79.7m	£279	£471
32	Sunderland	£83.6m	£292	£471
33	South Tyneside	£42.8m	£284	£470
34	East Lindsey	£36.7m	£253	£465
35	Conwy	£29.6m	£259	£463
36	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£82.2m	£299	£463
37	Middlesbrough	£44.8m	£289	£459
38	West Lothian	£53.8m	£289	£454
39	Isle of Anglesey	£17.4m	£253	£452
40	Hyndburn	£24.0m	£280	£451
41	Pembrokeshire	£31.8m	£253	£447
42	South Lanarkshire	£92.5m	£278	£446
43	Bolsover	£23.0m	£275	£441
44	Isle of Wight	£34.4m	£244	£441
45	Barnsley	£68.1m	£271	£439
46	County Durham	£145.1m	£270	£439
47	Hastings	£24.4m	£269	£436
48	Stoke-on-Trent	£73.8m	£273	£436
49	Ashfield	£34.6m	£268	£435
50	Nottingham	£100.7m	£305	£434

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?

Every local authority

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