Who Gets What

How does my area compare?

Tendring has the highest benefit spending per resident in 2024-25.

All the benefits on this site: pensioner, disability, carer, working-age and housing benefits paid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). In Scotland, it includes the Social Security Scotland benefits that replace some of them. Shown in 2026-27 prices, using CPI inflation, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Benefit spending, per resident, 2024-25, by local authority

Selected West Oxfordshire: £3,881 per resident, 2024-25, 275th of 348 local authorities.

Per resident, low to high

  1. Under £3,696
  2. £3,696 to £4,143
  3. £4,143 to £4,590
  4. £4,590 to £5,036
  5. £5,036 to £5,483
  6. £5,483 and over
  • Estimated value
Benefit spending, 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 348 ranked local authorities. It joins the area's rank for each way of counting. The 10 highest per resident are drawn in dark lines, and the selected area in gold.

TotalPer resident1348Tendring 1East Lindsey 2Blackpool 3North Ayrshire 4Blaenau Gwent 5Neath Port Talbot 6Thanet 7Inverclyde 8West Dunbartonshire 9Hartlepool 10West Oxfordshire 275

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

West Oxfordshire, 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.

Benefit
£251.8mFebruary 2023+£7.0mPopulation+£12.5mShare claiming+£34.3mPayment size£305.5mMarch 2026
What changed: State Pension
February 2023£251.8m
Population+£7.0m
Share claiming+£12.5m
Payment size+£34.3m
March 2026£305.5m
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.

Chart step
This chart needs JavaScript. Each area's expected level is on its area page.
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

Benefit spending, 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.

Benefit spending for every local authority, 2024-25
RankNotes
1Tendring£982.0m£6,279
2East Lindsey£905.0m£6,227
3Blackpool£879.8m£6,137
4North Ayrshire£814.3m£6,085Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
5Blaenau Gwent£410.0m£6,055
6Neath Port Talbot£852.0m£5,974
7Thanet£846.8m£5,957
8Inverclyde£466.9m£5,930Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
9West Dunbartonshire£525.5m£5,917Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
10Hartlepool£577.7m£5,903
11North Norfolk£605.5m£5,854
12Torbay£818.7m£5,854
13Isle of Wight£825.9m£5,843
14Great Yarmouth£586.9m£5,830
15Rother£558.3m£5,819
16Merthyr Tydfil£341.0m£5,806
17Conwy£662.6m£5,790
18Denbighshire£565.4m£5,777
19Dumfries and Galloway£841.4m£5,766Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
20Redcar and Cleveland£791.6m£5,704
21South Tyneside£858.2m£5,694
22Caerphilly£1.0bn£5,694
23Knowsley£920.5m£5,692
24Hastings£512.5m£5,631
25Torfaen£528.9m£5,624
26South Ayrshire£629.7m£5,609Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
27Wirral£1.8bn£5,585
28Eastbourne£581.7m£5,579
29Sunderland£1.6bn£5,552
30Isle of Anglesey£378.9m£5,502
31Carmarthenshire£1.0bn£5,493
32Sefton£1.6bn£5,491
33East Ayrshire£663.1m£5,465Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
34Folkestone and Hythe£610.4m£5,455
35Liverpool£2.8bn£5,426
36Enfield£1.8bn£5,420
37Wyre£638.7m£5,396
38County Durham£2.9bn£5,374
39Pembrokeshire£674.7m£5,369
40Rhondda Cynon Taf£1.3bn£5,368
41Halton£703.6m£5,361
42Torridge£373.6m£5,359
43St. Helens£1.0bn£5,350
44Bridgend£784.3m£5,332
45North East Lincolnshire£847.5m£5,306
46Arun£905.6m£5,305
47Clackmannanshire£274.8m£5,288Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
48East Suffolk£1.3bn£5,281
49Dundee City£787.5m£5,273Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
50Dorset£2.0bn£5,239

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, Social Security Scotland, Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland.

Every measureThe full list, as plain links

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