How does my area compare?

Blaenau Gwent has the highest spending on Employment and Support Allowance per person aged 16 to 64 in 2023-24.

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.

Per person aged 16 to 64, low to high

Under £229
£229 to £313
£313 to £397
£397 to £481
£481 to £565
£565 and over

Spending on Employment and Support Allowance, per person aged 16 to 64, 2023-24, 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 per person aged 16 to 64 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, 2023-24. Rank is for per person aged 16 to 64, 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, 2023-24
Rank
1	Blaenau Gwent	£32.0m	£474	£767
2	West Dunbartonshire	£38.7m	£436	£696
3	Merthyr Tydfil	£25.1m	£427	£692
4	Glasgow City	£306.0m	£478	£674
5	Neath Port Talbot	£57.7m	£407	£670
6	Blackpool	£57.1m	£400	£650
7	Rhondda Cynon Taf	£97.7m	£404	£650
8	Caerphilly	£70.1m	£398	£649
9	Knowsley	£63.3m	£397	£633
10	Inverclyde	£30.4m	£387	£625
11	Liverpool	£211.5m	£420	£620
12	North Ayrshire	£48.8m	£365	£608
13	North Lanarkshire	£123.9m	£362	£563
14	Carmarthenshire	£60.5m	£318	£546
15	Bridgend	£48.5m	£331	£540
16	Torfaen	£30.6m	£327	£540
17	Dundee City	£53.5m	£356	£540
18	Wirral	£104.1m	£320	£537
19	Denbighshire	£29.4m	£303	£527
20	Torbay	£41.8m	£299	£524
21	Renfrewshire	£62.5m	£334	£521
22	Redcar and Cleveland	£42.0m	£305	£520
23	Chesterfield	£33.4m	£317	£519
24	Dumfries and Galloway	£42.8m	£293	£510
25	St. Helens	£58.4m	£313	£507
26	Swansea	£78.6m	£316	£501
27	Sunderland	£86.9m	£307	£497
28	East Ayrshire	£36.9m	£305	£497
29	South Tyneside	£45.1m	£301	£497
30	South Ayrshire	£32.0m	£286	£493
31	Middlesbrough	£47.6m	£311	£492
32	Mansfield	£34.0m	£303	£490
33	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£86.5m	£317	£490
34	Sefton	£81.9m	£289	£487
35	Clackmannanshire	£15.7m	£301	£485
36	East Lindsey	£37.5m	£258	£473
37	Hyndburn	£24.7m	£292	£473
38	Conwy	£30.4m	£265	£471
39	West Lothian	£55.3m	£300	£470
40	Pembrokeshire	£33.1m	£264	£466
41	Stoke-on-Trent	£77.3m	£291	£464
42	Hastings	£26.0m	£285	£463
43	Nottingham	£106.0m	£324	£463
44	South Lanarkshire	£95.3m	£288	£461
45	Isle of Anglesey	£17.9m	£259	£460
46	Rochdale	£65.3m	£283	£459
47	Bolsover	£23.5m	£284	£455
48	Barnsley	£69.6m	£280	£453
49	County Durham	£149.1m	£280	£452
50	Isle of Wight	£35.4m	£251	£451

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are per person aged 16 to 64 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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