Who Gets What

How does my area compare?

Tower Hamlets has the highest spending on Pension Credit per person aged 66 and over 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.

Spending on Pension Credit, per person aged 66 and over, 2024-25, by local authority

Per person aged 66 and over, low to high

  1. Under £478
  2. £478 to £735
  3. £735 to £992
  4. £992 to £1,250
  5. £1,250 to £1,507
  6. £1,507 and over
Spending on Pension Credit, per person aged 66 and over, 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 person aged 66 and over are drawn in dark lines.

TotalPer residentPer person aged 66 and over1350Tower Hamlets 1Hackney 2Newham 3Islington 4Westminster 5Haringey 6Southwark 7Brent 8Lambeth 9Camden 10

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.

£5.6bnFebruary 2023+£111.6mPopulation−£63.9mShare claiming+£793.3mPayment size£6.4bnMarch 2026
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.

Chart step
This chart needs JavaScript. Each area's expected level is on its area page.
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 per person aged 66 and over, 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
RankNotes
1Tower Hamlets£49.4m£147£2,736
2Hackney£52.0m£194£2,503
3Newham£62.0m£163£2,399
4Islington£38.2m£169£1,911
5Westminster£45.3m£210£1,816
6Haringey£50.2m£187£1,802
7Southwark£47.2m£149£1,789
8Brent£70.4m£198£1,764
9Lambeth£47.6m£149£1,716
10Camden£41.2m£187£1,669
11Barking and Dagenham£30.4m£129£1,643
12Hammersmith and Fulham£31.1m£163£1,611
13Leicester£69.1m£179£1,596
14Ealing£71.8m£185£1,581
15Manchester£77.5m£132£1,515
16Kensington and Chelsea£29.6m£201£1,400
17Hounslow£47.8m£159£1,397
18Greenwich£41.0m£136£1,361
19Lewisham£38.0m£126£1,319
20Rushmoor£19.5m£185£1,281
21Waltham Forest£35.9m£127£1,280
22Enfield£55.8m£168£1,237
23Slough£18.3m£110£1,210
24Glasgow City£101.3m£156£1,203
25Redbridge£44.9m£139£1,186
26Wandsworth£37.1m£109£1,176
27Harrow£45.9m£169£1,145
28Liverpool£77.6m£153£1,062
29Birmingham£150.5m£127£1,039
30Sandwell£49.7m£141£1,036
31Barnet£59.3m£146£1,035
32Luton£25.4m£107£999
33Hillingdon£39.8m£121£984
34Nottingham£33.9m£102£925
35Reading£19.2m£105£921
36Knowsley£23.7m£146£901
37Merton£23.9m£109£880
38Wolverhampton£37.2m£133£877
39Croydon£45.1m£110£849
40Blackburn with Darwen£18.3m£113£847
41Salford£27.9m£95£805
42Kingston upon Hull, City of£30.6m£111£763
43Hartlepool£13.7m£140£746
44Blackpool£21.0m£146£745
44Brighton and Hove£28.4m£100£745
46Peterborough£22.5m£100£740
47Newcastle upon Tyne£32.9m£103£739
48Middlesbrough£17.8m£115£729
49Bolton£35.4m£115£716
50Kingston upon Thames£17.5m£101£715

League table of every local authority for the latest period

Values are per person aged 66 and over 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

Choose a measure

Search benefit spending, people receiving benefits and income tax