Who Gets What

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

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 £1,413
  2. £1,413 to £1,773
  3. £1,773 to £2,133
  4. £2,133 to £2,493
  5. £2,493 to £2,854
  6. £2,854 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. 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation.

Benefit
£3.5bnFebruary 2023+£40.8mPopulation+£578.3mShare claiming+£257.4mPayment size£4.4bnMarch 2026
What changed: Carer's Allowance and Carer Support Payment
February 2023£3.5bn
Population+£40.8m
Share claiming+£578.3m
Payment size+£257.4m
March 2026£4.4bn
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. 2026-27 prices, using CPI 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£857.0m£2,586£4,014
2Blackpool£318.0m£2,219£3,609
3Hackney£666.1m£2,479£3,359
4Hartlepool£199.6m£2,040£3,341
5Haringey£633.9m£2,361£3,301
6Brent£804.6m£2,264£3,244
7Thanet£266.8m£1,877£3,220
8Knowsley£325.6m£2,014£3,214
9Blaenau Gwent£132.3m£1,954£3,169
10Barking and Dagenham£494.7m£2,106£3,150
11Middlesbrough£306.2m£1,979£3,138
12Merthyr Tydfil£111.6m£1,900£3,089
13Hastings£171.7m£1,887£3,067
14Great Yarmouth£178.0m£1,768£3,034
15West Dunbartonshire£167.9m£1,890£3,027Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
16North Ayrshire£241.1m£1,801£3,017Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
17Birmingham£2.3bn£1,974£3,017
18Inverclyde£146.0m£1,854£3,011Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
19Liverpool£1.0bn£2,025£2,989
20Burnley£182.1m£1,836£2,978
21Oldham£457.7m£1,826£2,951
22Bradford£1.0bn£1,818£2,924
23Neath Port Talbot£254.0m£1,781£2,920
24Rochdale£422.6m£1,799£2,907
25Kingston upon Hull, City of£516.2m£1,879£2,907
26South Tyneside£265.0m£1,758£2,905
27Redcar and Cleveland£234.0m£1,686£2,886
28Hyndburn£152.3m£1,773£2,860
29Blackburn with Darwen£291.8m£1,805£2,860
30Walsall£513.0m£1,741£2,832
31Tendring£241.5m£1,544£2,831
32Torfaen£160.4m£1,706£2,818
33Halton£229.7m£1,750£2,818
34Tower Hamlets£733.0m£2,181£2,804
35Sunderland£494.0m£1,723£2,783
36Lewisham£601.7m£1,990£2,776
37Wolverhampton£488.0m£1,739£2,772
38Manchester£1.2bn£1,975£2,771
39Sandwell£621.6m£1,759£2,768
40North East Lincolnshire£262.5m£1,643£2,747
41Newham£763.8m£2,013£2,746
42Glasgow City£1.3bn£1,948£2,746Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
43Caerphilly£296.5m£1,682£2,743
44Ealing£727.7m£1,877£2,712
45Pendle£162.7m£1,633£2,696
46Torbay£213.8m£1,528£2,675
47Wirral£521.2m£1,588£2,664
48Denbighshire£149.5m£1,528£2,662
49Croydon£716.3m£1,753£2,649
50Nottingham£614.1m£1,858£2,647

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.

Every measureThe full list, as plain links

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