How does my area compare?

Glasgow City has the highest total spending on Employment and Support Allowance 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.

Total, low to high

Under £26.4m
£26.4m to £45.8m
£45.8m to £65.2m
£65.2m to £84.6m
£84.6m to £104.0m
£104.0m and over

Spending on Employment and Support Allowance, total, 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 total 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 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.

Spending on Employment and Support Allowance for every local authority, 2024-25
Rank
1	Glasgow City	£290.3m	£446	£629
2	Birmingham	£259.8m	£220	£336
3	Liverpool	£201.5m	£397	£585
4	Leeds	£177.1m	£210	£318
5	Manchester	£158.5m	£269	£378
6	County Durham	£144.5m	£269	£437
7	Sheffield	£144.1m	£248	£378
8	City of Edinburgh	£123.0m	£231	£331
9	Bradford	£120.3m	£215	£345
10	Cornwall	£118.6m	£204	£352
11	North Lanarkshire	£118.3m	£344	£537
12	Bristol, City of	£107.4m	£217	£306
13	Wirral	£100.4m	£306	£513
14	Nottingham	£100.3m	£303	£432
15	Wakefield	£97.7m	£266	£428
16	Rhondda Cynon Taf	£93.5m	£387	£622
17	South Lanarkshire	£92.1m	£277	£444
18	Fife	£92.0m	£245	£399
19	Kirklees	£91.6m	£205	£330
20	Cardiff	£91.2m	£239	£351
21	Somerset	£85.7m	£146	£252
22	North Yorkshire	£84.5m	£133	£230
23	Sunderland	£83.2m	£290	£469
24	Sandwell	£82.5m	£234	£368
25	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£81.8m	£298	£461
26	Wigan	£81.3m	£236	£379
27	Leicester	£81.1m	£210	£309
28	Sefton	£79.4m	£278	£469
29	Salford	£77.7m	£265	£387
30	Coventry	£75.8m	£206	£309
31	Swansea	£75.3m	£301	£476
32	Bolton	£74.4m	£241	£391
33	Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	£74.0m	£181	£291
34	Stoke-on-Trent	£73.5m	£272	£434
35	Doncaster	£72.9m	£228	£369
36	Hackney	£72.2m	£269	£364
37	Rotherham	£70.5m	£255	£416
38	Islington	£70.3m	£311	£406
39	Brighton and Hove	£68.6m	£241	£336
40	Northumberland	£68.2m	£206	£358
41	Barnsley	£67.8m	£270	£437
42	Caerphilly	£67.7m	£384	£626
43	Plymouth	£67.0m	£247	£383
44	Walsall	£65.9m	£224	£364
45	Cheshire West and Chester	£64.1m	£173	£282
46	Lewisham	£64.0m	£212	£295
47	Stockport	£63.4m	£210	£345
48	Newcastle upon Tyne	£63.2m	£198	£290
49	Tameside	£62.8m	£263	£418
50	Lambeth	£62.5m	£196	£256

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

Choose a measure