How does my area compare?

Tower Hamlets has the highest spending on Pension Credit per person aged 66 and over in 2023-24.

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.

Per person aged 66 and over, low to high

Under £458
£458 to £704
£704 to £950
£950 to £1,196
£1,196 to £1,441
£1,441 and over

Spending on Pension Credit, per person aged 66 and over, 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 66 and over are drawn in dark lines.

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.

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.

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, 2023-24. 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, 2023-24
Rank
1	Tower Hamlets	£46.7m	£140	£2,673
2	Hackney	£48.5m	£182	£2,406
3	Newham	£57.1m	£153	£2,293
4	Islington	£35.8m	£159	£1,834
5	Westminster	£42.6m	£197	£1,753
6	Southwark	£44.5m	£141	£1,749
7	Haringey	£47.0m	£176	£1,735
8	Brent	£65.3m	£185	£1,686
9	Lambeth	£44.5m	£139	£1,653
10	Camden	£38.7m	£175	£1,600
11	Leicester	£66.2m	£173	£1,562
12	Hammersmith and Fulham	£29.2m	£154	£1,561
13	Barking and Dagenham	£27.5m	£121	£1,517
14	Ealing	£66.6m	£174	£1,514
15	Manchester	£73.2m	£126	£1,454
16	Kensington and Chelsea	£28.1m	£189	£1,372
17	Hounslow	£43.8m	£147	£1,313
18	Greenwich	£38.1m	£128	£1,291
19	Lewisham	£35.2m	£117	£1,258
20	Rushmoor	£18.5m	£180	£1,247
21	Waltham Forest	£33.8m	£120	£1,227
22	Enfield	£51.1m	£155	£1,161
23	Glasgow City	£95.4m	£149	£1,158
24	Slough	£17.1m	£104	£1,151
25	Harrow	£44.4m	£166	£1,129
26	Redbridge	£41.7m	£131	£1,126
27	Wandsworth	£34.6m	£103	£1,119
28	Liverpool	£74.3m	£148	£1,034
29	Birmingham	£143.4m	£123	£1,001
30	Sandwell	£46.8m	£134	£980
31	Barnet	£54.3m	£136	£978
32	Luton	£23.5m	£100	£935
33	Hillingdon	£37.0m	£115	£925
34	Nottingham	£32.0m	£98	£883
35	Knowsley	£22.6m	£142	£882
36	Reading	£17.9m	£99	£874
37	Merton	£22.4m	£103	£845
38	Blackburn with Darwen	£17.9m	£113	£834
39	Wolverhampton	£34.5m	£125	£823
40	Croydon	£41.9m	£104	£807
41	Salford	£26.3m	£92	£767
42	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£29.2m	£107	£741
43	Blackpool	£20.2m	£142	£726
44	Brighton and Hove	£27.1m	£96	£723
45	Newcastle upon Tyne	£31.5m	£100	£723
46	Middlesbrough	£16.7m	£109	£702
47	Hastings	£12.5m	£137	£697
48	Hartlepool	£12.5m	£131	£696
49	Peterborough	£20.7m	£93	£695
50	Kingston upon Thames	£16.5m	£96	£686

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

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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