Who Gets What

How does my area compare?

Birmingham has the highest total spending on Income Support in 2024-25.

An older benefit for people on a low income. Universal Credit has mostly replaced it. Shown in 2026-27 prices, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Spending on Income Support, total, 2024-25, by local authority

Total, low to high

  1. Under £0.57m
  2. £0.57m to £1.1m
  3. £1.1m to £1.6m
  4. £1.6m to £2.1m
  5. £2.1m to £2.5m
  6. £2.5m and over
Spending on Income Support, 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.

TotalPer residentPer person aged 16 to 641350Liverpool 7Glasgow City 9Sandwell 11Sheffield 19County Durham 26Nottingham 29Birmingham 32Bradford 35Leeds 152Manchester 158

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, State Pension: 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.

Benefit
£120.7bnFebruary 2023+£2.5bnPopulation+£5.2bnShare claiming+£15.0bnPayment size£143.4bnMarch 2026
What changed: State Pension
February 2023£120.7bn
Population+£2.5bn
Share claiming+£5.2bn
Payment size+£15.0bn
March 2026£143.4bn
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 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 Income Support, 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 Income Support for every local authority, 2024-25
RankNotes
1Birmingham£8.5m£7.18£11
2Glasgow City£6.4m£9.89£14
3Liverpool£5.0m£9.85£15
4Sheffield£4.9m£8.45£13
5Bradford£3.8m£6.74£11
6County Durham£3.8m£7.02£11
7Leeds£3.6m£4.26£6.46
8Sandwell£3.0m£8.58£13
9Manchester£2.6m£4.44£6.23
10Nottingham£2.6m£7.86£11
11North Lanarkshire£2.5m£7.28£11
12Tower Hamlets£2.4m£7.28£9.37
13Bristol, City of£2.4m£4.92£6.93
14Sunderland£2.4m£8.33£13
15Wirral£2.3m£7.14£12
16Kingston upon Hull, City of£2.3m£8.50£13
17Walsall£2.3m£7.87£13
18Cornwall£2.3m£3.94£6.79
19Leicester£2.2m£5.64£8.32
20Newham£2.2m£5.69£7.76
21Kirklees£2.1m£4.75£7.63
22Fife£2.1m£5.60£9.11
23Greenwich£2.1m£6.85£9.75
24South Lanarkshire£2.1m£6.16£9.90
25Hackney£2.0m£7.54£10
26City of Edinburgh£2.0m£3.76£5.39
27Cardiff£2.0m£5.22£7.66
28Rhondda Cynon Taf£2.0m£8.23£13
29Islington£1.9m£8.54£11
30Lewisham£1.9m£6.26£8.73
31Rotherham£1.9m£6.74£11
32Salford£1.9m£6.31£9.23
33Coventry£1.8m£4.99£7.50
34Wakefield£1.8m£5.00£8.04
35Wolverhampton£1.8m£6.37£10
36Enfield£1.8m£5.36£8.32
37Lambeth£1.8m£5.56£7.26
38Newcastle upon Tyne£1.7m£5.36£7.86
39Wandsworth£1.7m£5.01£6.70
40Bolton£1.7m£5.49£8.90
41Camden£1.6m£7.45£10
42Barking and Dagenham£1.6m£6.95£10
43Dudley£1.6m£4.91£8.08
44Doncaster£1.6m£5.03£8.16
45Medway£1.6m£5.46£8.70
46Croydon£1.6m£3.90£5.89
47Middlesbrough£1.6m£10£16
48Ealing£1.6m£4.07£5.89
49Brent£1.6m£4.42£6.33
50Haringey£1.6m£5.83£8.15

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

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