How does my area compare?

Isles of Scilly has the highest spending on other benefits per resident in 2024-25.

Bereavement Benefit, Incapacity Benefit and Severe Disablement Allowance. Shown in 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Per resident, low to high

Under £4.73
£4.73 to £5.95
£5.95 to £7.16
£7.16 to £8.38
£8.38 to £9.60
£9.60 and over

Estimated value

Spending on other benefits, per resident, 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 resident are drawn in dark lines.

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, State Pension: 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: State Pension
February 2023	£119.8bn
Population	+£2.5bn
Share claiming	+£5.2bn
Payment size	+£16.3bn
March 2026	£143.9bn

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?

Benefit spending per resident, 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 = £765 − £935 × share aged 0 to 15 + £9,046 × share aged 66 and over − £177 × deprivation decile + £267 × ln(median pay) + £581 × Wales + £224 × Scotland. Fitted by ordinary least squares across 346 local authorities. R² = 0.87. Gold dots are above the expected level and grey dots are below it.

Every local authority

Spending on other benefits, 2024-25. Rank is for per resident, 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 other benefits for every local authority, 2024-25
Rank				Notes
1	Isles of Scilly	£0.29m	£121
2	Merthyr Tydfil	£0.92m	£16
3	Na h-Eileanan Siar	£0.35m	£14	Estimated
4	Rutland	£0.55m	£13
5	Derbyshire Dales	£0.90m	£13
6	Warwick	£1.8m	£12
7	Redditch	£0.96m	£11
8	Boston	£0.78m	£11
9	West Dunbartonshire	£0.94m	£11	Estimated
10	Knowsley	£1.7m	£10
11	St. Helens	£1.9m	£9.88
12	Pendle	£0.98m	£9.79
13	Blaby	£1.0m	£9.71
14	South Tyneside	£1.5m	£9.64
15	Caerphilly	£1.7m	£9.64
16	Tandridge	£0.86m	£9.56
17	Pembrokeshire	£1.2m	£9.40
18	Blackpool	£1.3m	£9.39
19	Calderdale	£2.0m	£9.38
20	Angus	£1.1m	£9.31	Estimated
21	Argyll and Bute	£0.81m	£9.23	Estimated
22	Bassetlaw	£1.1m	£9.11
23	East Renfrewshire	£0.90m	£9.04	Estimated
24	Hart	£0.93m	£9.03
25	Rochford	£0.80m	£8.98
26	North Somerset	£2.0m	£8.97
27	Conwy	£1.0m	£8.95
28	Blaenau Gwent	£0.60m	£8.89
29	Herefordshire, County of	£1.7m	£8.86
30	Inverclyde	£0.69m	£8.81	Estimated
31	West Lancashire	£1.1m	£8.75
32	Falkirk	£1.4m	£8.75	Estimated
33	Harborough	£0.91m	£8.73
34	Carmarthenshire	£1.6m	£8.55
35	Swansea	£2.1m	£8.55
36	Wirral	£2.8m	£8.52
37	South Ayrshire	£0.96m	£8.51	Estimated
38	Rotherham	£2.4m	£8.51
39	South Lanarkshire	£2.8m	£8.51	Estimated
40	Aberdeenshire	£2.3m	£8.50	Estimated
41	Mid Sussex	£1.4m	£8.47
42	Rother	£0.81m	£8.44
43	Adur	£0.55m	£8.44
44	Hartlepool	£0.82m	£8.42
45	Wyre	£1.00m	£8.42
46	North Lincolnshire	£1.4m	£8.34
47	Broxbourne	£0.85m	£8.32
48	Denbighshire	£0.81m	£8.25
49	Hastings	£0.75m	£8.20
50	Lewes	£0.84m	£8.19

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are per resident 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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