How does my area compare?

Birmingham has the highest total spending on working-age benefits 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.

Total, low to high

Under £181.8m
£181.8m to £315.5m
£315.5m to £449.2m
£449.2m to £582.9m
£582.9m to £716.6m
£716.6m and over

Estimated value

Spending on working-age benefits, 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, 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 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 working-age benefits for every local authority, 2024-25
Rank					Notes
1	Birmingham	£2.3bn	£1,965	£3,004
2	Glasgow City	£1.3bn	£1,940	£2,734	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
3	Manchester	£1.2bn	£1,967	£2,759
4	Leeds	£1.1bn	£1,341	£2,032
5	Liverpool	£1.0bn	£2,017	£2,976
6	Bradford	£1.0bn	£1,811	£2,912
7	Enfield	£853.3m	£2,575	£3,997
8	Sheffield	£850.3m	£1,465	£2,232
9	County Durham	£822.8m	£1,533	£2,486
10	Brent	£801.2m	£2,254	£3,230
11	Newham	£760.5m	£2,004	£2,734
12	Tower Hamlets	£729.9m	£2,171	£2,792
13	Ealing	£724.6m	£1,869	£2,700
14	Croydon	£713.3m	£1,746	£2,638
15	Barnet	£689.8m	£1,698	£2,615
16	Cornwall	£678.4m	£1,165	£2,011
17	Hackney	£663.3m	£2,469	£3,345
18	Bristol, City of	£637.4m	£1,290	£1,816
19	Haringey	£631.3m	£2,351	£3,287
20	Kirklees	£623.8m	£1,399	£2,249
21	Sandwell	£618.9m	£1,752	£2,756
22	Nottingham	£611.5m	£1,850	£2,635
23	Leicester	£611.1m	£1,580	£2,332
24	Somerset	£604.7m	£1,028	£1,777
25	Lewisham	£599.2m	£1,981	£2,764
26	Cardiff	£573.2m	£1,500	£2,204
27	Lambeth	£562.6m	£1,764	£2,303
28	Southwark	£559.2m	£1,764	£2,329
29	Coventry	£552.3m	£1,498	£2,251
30	North Lanarkshire	£546.8m	£1,592	£2,483	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
31	North Yorkshire	£536.1m	£846	£1,458
32	City of Edinburgh	£529.7m	£996	£1,426	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
33	Wakefield	£524.1m	£1,428	£2,295
34	Salford	£519.8m	£1,771	£2,592
35	Wirral	£519.0m	£1,581	£2,652
36	Greenwich	£517.7m	£1,718	£2,446
37	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£514.0m	£1,871	£2,894
38	Walsall	£510.8m	£1,734	£2,820
39	Hounslow	£510.6m	£1,702	£2,488
40	Fife	£507.1m	£1,353	£2,198	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
41	Bolton	£497.6m	£1,611	£2,615
42	Doncaster	£492.8m	£1,539	£2,497
43	Barking and Dagenham	£492.6m	£2,097	£3,136
44	Sunderland	£491.9m	£1,716	£2,771
45	Waltham Forest	£491.7m	£1,733	£2,478
46	Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	£490.1m	£1,201	£1,931
47	Wolverhampton	£485.9m	£1,732	£2,760
48	Buckinghamshire	£482.6m	£834	£1,367
49	Newcastle upon Tyne	£476.1m	£1,493	£2,187
50	Hillingdon	£466.1m	£1,421	£2,131

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are total 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?

Is spending higher or lower than expected?

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