Who Gets What

How does my area compare?

Westminster has the highest spending on Housing Benefit per resident in 2024-25.

Help with rent. Most people who get it now are pensioners or live in supported housing. Shown in 2026-27 prices, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Spending on Housing Benefit, per resident, 2024-25, by local authority

Selected King's Lynn and West Norfolk: £172 per resident, 2024-25, 212th of 350 local authorities.

Per resident, low to high

  1. Under £182
  2. £182 to £264
  3. £264 to £347
  4. £347 to £430
  5. £430 to £513
  6. £513 and over
Spending on Housing Benefit, per resident, 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 per resident are drawn in dark lines, and the selected area in gold.

TotalPer resident1350Westminster 1Kensington and Chelsea 2Hackney 3Islington 4Camden 5Lewisham 6Haringey 7Lambeth 8Birmingham 9Brent 10King's Lynn and West Norfolk 212

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

King's Lynn and West Norfolk, Housing Benefit: yearly spending at the rate in March 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.

£28.2mMarch 2023−£7,190Population−£12.2mShare claiming+£3.1mPayment size£19.2mMarch 2026
What changed: Housing Benefit
March 2023£28.2m
Population−£7,190
Share claiming−£12.2m
Payment size+£3.1m
March 2026£19.2m
The share claiming is the number of people claiming per resident. 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?

Benefit spending per resident, 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 = £765 − £935 × share aged 0 to 15 + £9,046 × share aged 66 and over − £177 × deprivation decile + £267 × ln(median pay) + £581 × Wales + £224 × Scotland. Fitted by ordinary least squares across 346 local authorities. R² = 0.87. Gold dots are above the expected level and grey dots are below it.

Every local authority

Spending on Housing Benefit, 2024-25. Rank is for per resident, 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 Housing Benefit for every local authority, 2024-25
RankNotes
1Westminster£192.9m£894
2Kensington and Chelsea£121.1m£823
3Hackney£213.3m£794
4Islington£151.1m£668
5Camden£144.4m£655
6Lewisham£189.4m£626
7Haringey£160.8m£599
8Lambeth£190.0m£596
9Birmingham£669.2m£566
10Brent£199.3m£561
11Tower Hamlets£183.7m£547
12Hammersmith and Fulham£100.9m£529
13Newham£198.6m£523
14Enfield£167.5m£505
15Ealing£189.8m£490
16Southwark£153.7m£485
17Glasgow City£291.5m£448
18Barnet£178.1m£438
19Greenwich£123.4m£410
20Brighton and Hove£115.4m£405
21Wandsworth£137.2m£404
22Liverpool£203.4m£400
23Hastings£35.7m£392
24Croydon£153.1m£375
25Eastbourne£37.9m£364
26Nottingham£117.5m£355
27Portsmouth£74.9m£352
28West Dunbartonshire£31.2m£351
29Slough£58.1m£348
30Waltham Forest£95.1m£335
31Kingston upon Hull, City of£91.5m£333
32City of Edinburgh£176.7m£332
33Salford£95.4m£325
34Dundee City£48.2m£322
35Neath Port Talbot£45.6m£320
36City of London£4.9m£315
37Blackpool£45.0m£314
38Norwich£46.2m£314
39Southend-on-Sea£57.4m£311
40Manchester£180.6m£307
41Blaenau Gwent£20.5m£303
42Knowsley£48.6m£300
43South Tyneside£45.1m£299
44Inverclyde£23.4m£298
45Cardiff£113.3m£297
46Harrow£79.6m£294
47Middlesbrough£44.7m£289
48Redbridge£93.2m£289
49Caerphilly£50.0m£284
50Merton£62.2m£283

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are per resident 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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