How does my area compare?

Enfield has the highest spending on working-age benefits per resident 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, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Per resident, low to high

Under £862
£862 to £1,096
£1,096 to £1,330
£1,330 to £1,564
£1,564 to £1,798
£1,798 and over

Estimated value

Spending on working-age benefits, 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, 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.

What changed: Carer's Allowance and Carer Support Payment
February 2023	£3.6bn
Population	+£40.9m
Share claiming	+£579.2m
Payment size	+£217.0m
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.

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 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 working-age benefits for every local authority, 2024-25
Rank					Notes
1	Enfield	£853.3m	£2,575	£3,997
2	Hackney	£663.3m	£2,469	£3,345
3	Haringey	£631.3m	£2,351	£3,287
4	Brent	£801.2m	£2,254	£3,230
5	Blackpool	£316.7m	£2,209	£3,594
6	Tower Hamlets	£729.9m	£2,171	£2,792
7	Barking and Dagenham	£492.6m	£2,097	£3,136
8	Hartlepool	£198.8m	£2,031	£3,327
9	Liverpool	£1.0bn	£2,017	£2,976
10	Islington	£455.7m	£2,015	£2,631
11	Knowsley	£324.3m	£2,005	£3,200
12	Newham	£760.5m	£2,004	£2,734
13	Lewisham	£599.2m	£1,981	£2,764
14	Middlesbrough	£304.9m	£1,971	£3,124
15	Manchester	£1.2bn	£1,967	£2,759
16	Birmingham	£2.3bn	£1,965	£3,004
17	Blaenau Gwent	£131.7m	£1,946	£3,155
18	Glasgow City	£1.3bn	£1,940	£2,734	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
19	Merthyr Tydfil	£111.1m	£1,892	£3,076
20	West Dunbartonshire	£167.2m	£1,882	£3,014	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
21	Hastings	£171.0m	£1,879	£3,054
22	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£514.0m	£1,871	£2,894
23	Ealing	£724.6m	£1,869	£2,700
24	Thanet	£265.6m	£1,869	£3,207
25	Nottingham	£611.5m	£1,850	£2,635
26	Inverclyde	£145.4m	£1,847	£2,998	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
27	Burnley	£181.3m	£1,828	£2,965
28	Oldham	£455.8m	£1,818	£2,938
29	Bradford	£1.0bn	£1,811	£2,912
30	Blackburn with Darwen	£290.5m	£1,798	£2,847
31	North Ayrshire	£240.1m	£1,794	£3,005	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
32	Rochdale	£420.9m	£1,791	£2,895
33	Neath Port Talbot	£252.9m	£1,773	£2,908
34	Salford	£519.8m	£1,771	£2,592
35	Hyndburn	£151.6m	£1,765	£2,848
36	Lambeth	£562.6m	£1,764	£2,303
37	Southwark	£559.2m	£1,764	£2,329
38	Great Yarmouth	£177.2m	£1,761	£3,021
39	Sandwell	£618.9m	£1,752	£2,756
40	South Tyneside	£263.9m	£1,751	£2,893
41	Croydon	£713.3m	£1,746	£2,638
42	Halton	£228.7m	£1,742	£2,806
43	Walsall	£510.8m	£1,734	£2,820
44	Waltham Forest	£491.7m	£1,733	£2,478
45	Wolverhampton	£485.9m	£1,732	£2,760
46	Greenwich	£517.7m	£1,718	£2,446
47	Sunderland	£491.9m	£1,716	£2,771
48	Hounslow	£510.6m	£1,702	£2,488
49	Torfaen	£159.7m	£1,698	£2,806
50	Barnet	£689.8m	£1,698	£2,615

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

Does the order change when you count per person?

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

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