Who Gets What

How does my area compare?

Enfield has the highest spending on Universal Credit per resident 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, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Spending on Universal Credit, per resident, 2024-25, by local authority

Per resident, low to high

  1. Under £691
  2. £691 to £892
  3. £892 to £1,093
  4. £1,093 to £1,295
  5. £1,295 to £1,496
  6. £1,496 and over
Spending on Universal Credit, 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.

TotalPer residentPer person aged 16 to 641350Enfield 1Brent 2Haringey 3Hackney 4Blackpool 5Barking and Dagenham 6Tower Hamlets 12Newham 15Ealing 16Lewisham 17

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.

£53.7bnMay 2023+£675.6mPopulation+£22.9bnShare claiming+£10.2bnPayment size£87.5bnMay 2026
What changed: Universal Credit
May 2023£53.7bn
Population+£675.6m
Share claiming+£22.9bn
Payment size+£10.2bn
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.

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 Universal Credit, 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 Universal Credit for every local authority, 2024-25
RankNotes
1Enfield£757.3m£2,285£3,547
2Hackney£563.1m£2,096£2,840
3Haringey£545.4m£2,031£2,840
4Brent£711.1m£2,001£2,867
5Tower Hamlets£633.4m£1,884£2,423
6Barking and Dagenham£432.9m£1,843£2,756
7Newham£668.8m£1,762£2,405
8Blackpool£243.1m£1,696£2,758
9Lewisham£512.4m£1,694£2,364
10Ealing£643.5m£1,660£2,398
11Hartlepool£159.0m£1,625£2,661
12Birmingham£1.9bn£1,612£2,465
13Islington£363.0m£1,605£2,096
14Manchester£936.4m£1,591£2,232
15Middlesbrough£239.1m£1,546£2,450
16Croydon£631.4m£1,545£2,335
17Thanet£217.7m£1,531£2,627
18Hounslow£457.2m£1,524£2,228
19Southwark£481.7m£1,519£2,006
20Hastings£137.6m£1,512£2,457
21Lambeth£479.3m£1,503£1,962
22Barnet£609.5m£1,501£2,310
23Waltham Forest£423.7m£1,493£2,135
24Liverpool£758.4m£1,492£2,202
25Oldham£373.4m£1,489£2,408
26Knowsley£239.5m£1,481£2,364
27Burnley£144.5m£1,457£2,364
28Kingston upon Hull, City of£398.6m£1,451£2,244
29Bradford£809.5m£1,446£2,325
30Greenwich£434.8m£1,443£2,054
31Nottingham£474.7m£1,436£2,046
32Blackburn with Darwen£230.7m£1,428£2,261
33Rochdale£332.5m£1,415£2,287
34Great Yarmouth£142.0m£1,411£2,420
35Salford£413.8m£1,410£2,063
36Wolverhampton£393.3m£1,402£2,234
37Sandwell£490.1m£1,387£2,182
38Hammersmith and Fulham£263.1m£1,379£1,848
39Hyndburn£118.3m£1,377£2,221
40Glasgow City£894.5m£1,375£1,938
41Walsall£404.3m£1,372£2,232
42Halton£178.7m£1,362£2,193
43West Dunbartonshire£120.5m£1,356£2,172
44Inverclyde£106.7m£1,355£2,200
45Blaenau Gwent£91.4m£1,350£2,189
46Merthyr Tydfil£78.6m£1,338£2,176
47Peterborough£298.6m£1,332£2,106
48South Tyneside£200.5m£1,330£2,198
49Camden£292.1m£1,325£1,782
50Luton£315.3m£1,324£2,009

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.

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