How does my area compare?

Birmingham has the highest total spending on Pension Credit in 2024-25.

Extra money for people over State Pension age who have a low income. Shown in 2026-27 prices, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Total, low to high

Under £13.7m
£13.7m to £24.0m
£24.0m to £34.2m
£34.2m to £44.5m
£44.5m to £54.7m
£54.7m and over

Spending on Pension Credit, 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, 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

Spending on Pension Credit, 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 Pension Credit for every local authority, 2024-25
Rank
1	Birmingham	£150.5m	£127	£1,039
2	Glasgow City	£101.3m	£156	£1,203
3	Liverpool	£77.6m	£153	£1,062
4	Manchester	£77.5m	£132	£1,515
5	Ealing	£71.8m	£185	£1,581
6	Brent	£70.4m	£198	£1,764
7	Leicester	£69.1m	£179	£1,596
8	Leeds	£64.9m	£77	£522
9	Newham	£62.0m	£163	£2,399
10	Barnet	£59.3m	£146	£1,035
11	Bradford	£57.9m	£103	£704
12	County Durham	£57.8m	£108	£521
13	Enfield	£55.8m	£168	£1,237
14	Sheffield	£55.5m	£96	£601
15	Cornwall	£55.3m	£95	£384
16	Hackney	£52.0m	£194	£2,503
17	Haringey	£50.2m	£187	£1,802
18	Sandwell	£49.7m	£141	£1,036
19	Tower Hamlets	£49.4m	£147	£2,736
20	Hounslow	£47.8m	£159	£1,397
21	Lambeth	£47.6m	£149	£1,716
22	Southwark	£47.2m	£149	£1,789
23	Harrow	£45.9m	£169	£1,145
24	Westminster	£45.3m	£210	£1,816
25	North Yorkshire	£45.3m	£72	£290
26	Croydon	£45.1m	£110	£849
27	Redbridge	£44.9m	£139	£1,186
28	Somerset	£44.4m	£76	£312
29	Camden	£41.2m	£187	£1,669
30	Greenwich	£41.0m	£136	£1,361
31	Hillingdon	£39.8m	£121	£984
32	North Lanarkshire	£39.8m	£116	£670
33	Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	£38.6m	£95	£456
34	Bristol, City of	£38.3m	£78	£654
35	Islington	£38.2m	£169	£1,911
36	Lewisham	£38.0m	£126	£1,319
37	Wolverhampton	£37.2m	£133	£877
38	Wirral	£37.2m	£113	£531
39	Wandsworth	£37.1m	£109	£1,176
40	Waltham Forest	£35.9m	£127	£1,280
41	Cardiff	£35.8m	£94	£682
42	Sunderland	£35.8m	£125	£636
43	Kirklees	£35.7m	£80	£467
44	Bolton	£35.4m	£115	£716
45	City of Edinburgh	£34.3m	£64	£427
46	Coventry	£33.9m	£92	£703
47	Nottingham	£33.9m	£102	£925
48	South Lanarkshire	£33.7m	£101	£517
49	Sefton	£33.6m	£118	£523
50	Newcastle upon Tyne	£32.9m	£103	£739

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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