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 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Per person aged 66 and over, low to high

Under £480
£480 to £738
£738 to £997
£997 to £1,255
£1,255 to £1,513
£1,513 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.

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. 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation.

What changed: Pension Credit
February 2023	£5.5bn
Population	+£111.4m
Share claiming	−£63.8m
Payment size	+£853.5m
March 2026	£6.4bn

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. 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation.

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
Rank
1	Tower Hamlets	£49.6m	£148	£2,748
2	Hackney	£52.2m	£194	£2,513
3	Newham	£62.3m	£164	£2,409
4	Islington	£38.4m	£170	£1,919
5	Westminster	£45.5m	£211	£1,823
6	Haringey	£50.4m	£188	£1,810
7	Southwark	£47.4m	£150	£1,797
8	Brent	£70.7m	£199	£1,771
9	Lambeth	£47.8m	£150	£1,723
10	Camden	£41.4m	£188	£1,676
11	Barking and Dagenham	£30.5m	£130	£1,650
12	Hammersmith and Fulham	£31.3m	£164	£1,618
13	Leicester	£69.4m	£180	£1,602
14	Ealing	£72.1m	£186	£1,588
15	Manchester	£77.9m	£132	£1,522
16	Kensington and Chelsea	£29.7m	£202	£1,406
17	Hounslow	£48.0m	£160	£1,402
18	Greenwich	£41.2m	£137	£1,367
19	Lewisham	£38.2m	£126	£1,325
20	Rushmoor	£19.5m	£185	£1,286
21	Waltham Forest	£36.1m	£127	£1,286
22	Enfield	£56.0m	£169	£1,242
23	Slough	£18.4m	£110	£1,215
24	Glasgow City	£101.7m	£156	£1,208
25	Redbridge	£45.1m	£140	£1,191
26	Wandsworth	£37.3m	£110	£1,181
27	Harrow	£46.1m	£170	£1,150
28	Liverpool	£77.9m	£153	£1,066
29	Birmingham	£151.1m	£128	£1,043
30	Sandwell	£49.9m	£141	£1,040
31	Barnet	£59.5m	£147	£1,039
32	Luton	£25.5m	£107	£1,003
33	Hillingdon	£40.0m	£122	£989
34	Nottingham	£34.0m	£103	£929
35	Reading	£19.3m	£106	£925
36	Knowsley	£23.8m	£147	£905
37	Merton	£24.0m	£109	£884
38	Wolverhampton	£37.4m	£133	£881
39	Croydon	£45.3m	£111	£853
40	Blackburn with Darwen	£18.4m	£114	£850
41	Salford	£28.0m	£95	£809
42	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£30.7m	£112	£766
43	Hartlepool	£13.7m	£140	£749
44	Blackpool	£21.1m	£147	£748
45	Brighton and Hove	£28.5m	£100	£748
46	Peterborough	£22.6m	£101	£743
47	Newcastle upon Tyne	£33.0m	£104	£742
48	Middlesbrough	£17.8m	£115	£732
49	Bolton	£35.6m	£115	£719
50	Kingston upon Thames	£17.5m	£101	£718

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.

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

Choose a measure