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 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 £1,134
£1,134 to £1,435
£1,435 to £1,736
£1,736 to £2,037
£2,037 to £2,338
£2,338 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. 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation.

What changed: Universal Credit
May 2023	£53.1bn
Population	+£672.2m
Share claiming	+£22.8bn
Payment size	+£10.9bn
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. 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 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	£760.6m	£2,295	£3,562
2	Brent	£714.1m	£2,009	£2,879
3	Haringey	£547.7m	£2,040	£2,852
4	Hackney	£565.5m	£2,105	£2,852
5	Blackpool	£244.1m	£1,703	£2,770
6	Barking and Dagenham	£434.7m	£1,851	£2,768
7	Hartlepool	£159.7m	£1,632	£2,673
8	Thanet	£218.6m	£1,538	£2,639
9	Birmingham	£1.9bn	£1,619	£2,475
10	Hastings	£138.2m	£1,518	£2,467
11	Middlesbrough	£240.2m	£1,552	£2,461
12	Tower Hamlets	£636.1m	£1,892	£2,433
13	Great Yarmouth	£142.6m	£1,417	£2,431
14	Oldham	£375.0m	£1,496	£2,418
15	Newham	£671.6m	£1,770	£2,415
16	Ealing	£646.2m	£1,667	£2,408
17	Lewisham	£514.6m	£1,702	£2,374
18	Knowsley	£240.5m	£1,487	£2,374
19	Burnley	£145.2m	£1,463	£2,374
20	Croydon	£634.1m	£1,552	£2,345
21	Bradford	£813.0m	£1,452	£2,335
22	Barnet	£612.1m	£1,507	£2,320
23	Rochdale	£333.9m	£1,421	£2,297
24	Blackburn with Darwen	£231.7m	£1,434	£2,271
25	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£400.3m	£1,457	£2,254
26	Wolverhampton	£395.0m	£1,408	£2,244
27	Walsall	£406.0m	£1,378	£2,242
28	Manchester	£940.4m	£1,598	£2,241
29	Hounslow	£459.2m	£1,530	£2,237
30	Hyndburn	£118.8m	£1,383	£2,231
31	North Ayrshire	£177.5m	£1,326	£2,222
32	Liverpool	£761.6m	£1,499	£2,212
33	Inverclyde	£107.2m	£1,361	£2,210
34	South Tyneside	£201.4m	£1,336	£2,207
35	Halton	£179.5m	£1,367	£2,202
36	Blaenau Gwent	£91.8m	£1,356	£2,199
37	Tendring	£187.3m	£1,198	£2,196
38	Sandwell	£492.2m	£1,393	£2,192
39	Merthyr Tydfil	£78.9m	£1,344	£2,185
40	West Dunbartonshire	£121.0m	£1,362	£2,181
41	North East Lincolnshire	£207.0m	£1,296	£2,167
42	Redcar and Cleveland	£175.1m	£1,262	£2,160
43	Waltham Forest	£425.5m	£1,499	£2,144
44	Pendle	£128.0m	£1,285	£2,122
45	Peterborough	£299.9m	£1,338	£2,115
46	Torfaen	£119.8m	£1,274	£2,106
47	Islington	£364.5m	£1,612	£2,105
48	Eastbourne	£128.6m	£1,234	£2,100
49	Southend-on-Sea	£237.5m	£1,287	£2,086
50	Harlow	£130.1m	£1,326	£2,084

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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