How does my area compare?

Blaenau Gwent has the highest spending on Employment and Support Allowance per resident in 2024-25.

Money for people whose illness or disability limits how much they can work. Shown in 2026-27 prices, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Per resident, low to high

Under £132
£132 to £182
£182 to £233
£233 to £283
£283 to £334
£334 and over

Spending on Employment and Support Allowance, 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, Employment and Support Allowance: 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.

What changed: Employment and Support Allowance
February 2023	£13.5bn
Population	+£85.0m
Share claiming	−£6.2bn
Payment size	−£2.2bn
March 2026	£5.2bn

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.

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.

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 Employment and Support Allowance, 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 Employment and Support Allowance for every local authority, 2024-25
Rank
1	Blaenau Gwent	£30.9m	£456	£740
2	Glasgow City	£290.3m	£446	£629
3	West Dunbartonshire	£36.5m	£411	£659
4	Merthyr Tydfil	£23.9m	£408	£663
5	Liverpool	£201.5m	£397	£585
6	Neath Port Talbot	£55.7m	£391	£641
7	Rhondda Cynon Taf	£93.5m	£387	£622
8	Caerphilly	£67.7m	£384	£626
9	Blackpool	£54.6m	£381	£619
10	Inverclyde	£29.9m	£379	£616
11	Knowsley	£60.7m	£376	£599
12	North Ayrshire	£47.3m	£354	£592
13	North Lanarkshire	£118.3m	£344	£537
14	Dundee City	£51.3m	£344	£524
15	Bridgend	£47.2m	£321	£525
16	Renfrewshire	£60.1m	£318	£499
17	Torfaen	£29.6m	£315	£520
18	Islington	£70.3m	£311	£406
19	Carmarthenshire	£58.6m	£308	£530
20	Wirral	£100.4m	£306	£513
21	Nottingham	£100.3m	£303	£432
22	Chesterfield	£31.9m	£301	£493
23	Swansea	£75.3m	£301	£476
24	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£81.8m	£298	£461
25	St. Helens	£56.1m	£298	£482
26	East Ayrshire	£36.1m	£297	£487
27	Clackmannanshire	£15.3m	£295	£476
28	Denbighshire	£28.7m	£294	£511
29	Mansfield	£33.0m	£291	£472
30	Sunderland	£83.2m	£290	£469
31	Torbay	£40.5m	£289	£507
32	Middlesbrough	£44.6m	£288	£457
33	West Lothian	£53.6m	£288	£452
34	Redcar and Cleveland	£39.9m	£288	£492
35	Dumfries and Galloway	£41.5m	£284	£497
36	South Tyneside	£42.7m	£283	£468
37	Norwich	£41.1m	£279	£402
38	Camden	£61.5m	£279	£375
39	Hyndburn	£23.9m	£279	£450
40	Sefton	£79.4m	£278	£469
41	South Lanarkshire	£92.1m	£277	£444
42	Bolsover	£22.9m	£274	£439
43	South Ayrshire	£30.6m	£273	£473
44	Stoke-on-Trent	£73.5m	£272	£434
45	Falkirk	£43.4m	£272	£429
46	Barnsley	£67.8m	£270	£437
47	Manchester	£158.5m	£269	£378
48	County Durham	£144.5m	£269	£437
49	Hackney	£72.2m	£269	£364
50	Hastings	£24.3m	£267	£435

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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