How does my area compare?

Birmingham has the highest total number of people receiving Pension Credit in March 2026.

People receiving Pension Credit, in each month with published figures. Extra money for people over State Pension age who have a low income.

Total, low to high

Under 2,828
2,828 to 4,775
4,775 to 6,721
6,721 to 8,668
8,668 to 10,615
10,615 and over

People receiving Pension Credit, total, March 2026, 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 total are drawn in dark lines.

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, Pension Credit: 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: Pension Credit
February 2023	£5.6bn
Population	+£111.6m
Share claiming	−£63.9m
Payment size	+£793.3m
March 2026	£6.4bn

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?

Spending on pensioner benefits per person aged 66 and over, 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 = £12,909 + £3,353 × share aged 0 to 15 − £1,419 × share aged 66 and over − £40 × deprivation decile − £91 × ln(median pay) + £207 × Wales + £80 × Scotland. Fitted by ordinary least squares across 346 local authorities. R² = 0.35. Gold dots are above the expected level and grey dots are below it.

Every local authority

People receiving Pension Credit, March 2026. Rank is for total, 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.

People receiving Pension Credit for every local authority, March 2026
Rank
1	Birmingham	28,418	24.0	196.1
2	Glasgow City	21,830	33.6	259.2
3	Liverpool	16,941	33.3	231.9
4	County Durham	15,081	28.1	136.1
5	Leeds	15,067	17.9	121.2
6	Cornwall	14,786	25.4	102.8
7	Manchester	14,209	24.1	277.7
8	Sheffield	12,528	21.6	135.8
9	Bradford	12,484	22.3	151.7
10	North Yorkshire	11,951	18.9	76.4
11	Somerset	11,199	19.0	78.7
12	Leicester	10,162	26.3	234.5
13	Brent	9,836	27.7	246.5
14	North Lanarkshire	9,825	28.6	165.3
15	Sandwell	9,724	27.5	202.8
16	Ealing	9,512	24.5	209.6
17	Sunderland	9,324	32.5	165.9
18	Wirral	8,981	27.4	128.2
19	Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	8,902	21.8	105.2
20	Newham	8,892	23.4	343.9
21	Barnet	8,716	21.5	152.1
22	Enfield	8,687	26.2	192.5
23	Kirklees	8,517	19.1	111.4
24	Sefton	8,401	29.4	130.7
25	South Lanarkshire	8,327	25.0	127.8
26	Hackney	8,254	30.7	397.3
27	Lambeth	8,081	25.3	291.1
28	Southwark	7,910	24.9	299.8
29	Bristol, City of	7,840	15.9	133.8
30	Dorset	7,835	20.1	69.1
31	City of Edinburgh	7,812	14.7	97.4
32	East Riding of Yorkshire	7,798	21.9	85.3
33	Wigan	7,749	22.5	123.6
34	Haringey	7,660	28.5	274.9
35	Tower Hamlets	7,615	22.7	421.5
36	Wiltshire	7,585	14.5	66.6
37	Croydon	7,564	18.5	142.5
38	Kingston upon Hull, City of	7,526	27.4	187.9
39	Bolton	7,512	24.3	151.9
40	Dudley	7,481	22.6	117.5
41	Wakefield	7,478	20.4	113.1
42	Newcastle upon Tyne	7,476	23.4	168.1
43	Fife	7,460	19.9	95.1
44	Doncaster	7,457	23.3	126.3
45	Northumberland	7,455	22.5	89.5
46	Wolverhampton	7,443	26.5	175.4
47	Walsall	7,396	25.1	155.0
48	Cardiff	7,358	19.3	139.9
49	Nottingham	7,336	22.2	200.4
50	Coventry	7,013	19.0	145.3

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are total 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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