How does my area compare?

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

Per person aged 16 to 64, low to high

Under £218
£218 to £298
£298 to £379
£379 to £459
£459 to £539
£539 and over

Spending on Employment and Support Allowance, per person aged 16 to 64, 2024-25, by local authority. 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, 2024-25. 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, 2024-25
Rank
1	Blaenau Gwent	£30.9m	£456	£740
2	Merthyr Tydfil	£23.9m	£408	£663
3	West Dunbartonshire	£36.5m	£411	£659
4	Neath Port Talbot	£55.7m	£391	£641
5	Glasgow City	£290.3m	£446	£629
6	Caerphilly	£67.7m	£384	£626
7	Rhondda Cynon Taf	£93.5m	£387	£622
8	Blackpool	£54.6m	£381	£619
9	Inverclyde	£29.9m	£379	£616
10	Knowsley	£60.7m	£376	£599
11	North Ayrshire	£47.3m	£354	£592
12	Liverpool	£201.5m	£397	£585
13	North Lanarkshire	£118.3m	£344	£537
14	Carmarthenshire	£58.6m	£308	£530
15	Bridgend	£47.2m	£321	£525
16	Dundee City	£51.3m	£344	£524
17	Torfaen	£29.6m	£315	£520
18	Wirral	£100.4m	£306	£513
19	Denbighshire	£28.7m	£294	£511
20	Torbay	£40.5m	£289	£507
21	Renfrewshire	£60.1m	£318	£499
22	Dumfries and Galloway	£41.5m	£284	£497
23	Chesterfield	£31.9m	£301	£493
24	Redcar and Cleveland	£39.9m	£288	£492
25	East Ayrshire	£36.1m	£297	£487
26	St. Helens	£56.1m	£298	£482
27	Clackmannanshire	£15.3m	£295	£476
28	Swansea	£75.3m	£301	£476
29	South Ayrshire	£30.6m	£273	£473
30	Mansfield	£33.0m	£291	£472
31	Sefton	£79.4m	£278	£469
32	Sunderland	£83.2m	£290	£469
33	South Tyneside	£42.7m	£283	£468
34	East Lindsey	£36.6m	£252	£463
35	Conwy	£29.5m	£258	£461
36	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£81.8m	£298	£461
37	Middlesbrough	£44.6m	£288	£457
38	West Lothian	£53.6m	£288	£452
39	Isle of Anglesey	£17.3m	£251	£450
40	Hyndburn	£23.9m	£279	£450
41	Pembrokeshire	£31.6m	£252	£445
42	South Lanarkshire	£92.1m	£277	£444
43	Bolsover	£22.9m	£274	£439
44	Isle of Wight	£34.3m	£242	£439
45	Barnsley	£67.8m	£270	£437
46	County Durham	£144.5m	£269	£437
47	Hastings	£24.3m	£267	£435
48	Stoke-on-Trent	£73.5m	£272	£434
49	Ashfield	£34.4m	£266	£433
50	Nottingham	£100.3m	£303	£432

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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