How does my area compare?

Enfield has the highest spending on Universal Credit per person aged 16 to 64 in 2024-25.

Help with living costs for working-age people on a low income, in or out of 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 £1,129
£1,129 to £1,429
£1,429 to £1,729
£1,729 to £2,028
£2,028 to £2,328
£2,328 and over

Spending on Universal Credit, 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, Universal Credit: yearly spending at the rate in May 2023 and in May 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: Universal Credit
May 2023	£53.7bn
Population	+£675.6m
Share claiming	+£22.9bn
Payment size	+£10.2bn
May 2026	£87.5bn

The share claiming is the number of households 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 Universal Credit, 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 Universal Credit for every local authority, 2024-25
Rank
1	Enfield	£757.3m	£2,285	£3,547
2	Brent	£711.1m	£2,001	£2,867
3	Haringey	£545.4m	£2,031	£2,840
4	Hackney	£563.1m	£2,096	£2,840
5	Blackpool	£243.1m	£1,696	£2,758
6	Barking and Dagenham	£432.9m	£1,843	£2,756
7	Hartlepool	£159.0m	£1,625	£2,661
8	Thanet	£217.7m	£1,531	£2,627
9	Birmingham	£1.9bn	£1,612	£2,465
10	Hastings	£137.6m	£1,512	£2,457
11	Middlesbrough	£239.1m	£1,546	£2,450
12	Tower Hamlets	£633.4m	£1,884	£2,423
13	Great Yarmouth	£142.0m	£1,411	£2,420
14	Oldham	£373.4m	£1,489	£2,408
15	Newham	£668.8m	£1,762	£2,405
16	Ealing	£643.5m	£1,660	£2,398
17	Lewisham	£512.4m	£1,694	£2,364
18	Knowsley	£239.5m	£1,481	£2,364
19	Burnley	£144.5m	£1,457	£2,364
20	Croydon	£631.4m	£1,545	£2,335
21	Bradford	£809.5m	£1,446	£2,325
22	Barnet	£609.5m	£1,501	£2,310
23	Rochdale	£332.5m	£1,415	£2,287
24	Blackburn with Darwen	£230.7m	£1,428	£2,261
25	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£398.6m	£1,451	£2,244
26	Wolverhampton	£393.3m	£1,402	£2,234
27	Walsall	£404.3m	£1,372	£2,232
28	Manchester	£936.4m	£1,591	£2,232
29	Hounslow	£457.2m	£1,524	£2,228
30	Hyndburn	£118.3m	£1,377	£2,221
31	North Ayrshire	£176.8m	£1,321	£2,212
32	Liverpool	£758.4m	£1,492	£2,202
33	Inverclyde	£106.7m	£1,355	£2,200
34	South Tyneside	£200.5m	£1,330	£2,198
35	Halton	£178.7m	£1,362	£2,193
36	Blaenau Gwent	£91.4m	£1,350	£2,189
37	Tendring	£186.5m	£1,193	£2,186
38	Sandwell	£490.1m	£1,387	£2,182
39	Merthyr Tydfil	£78.6m	£1,338	£2,176
40	West Dunbartonshire	£120.5m	£1,356	£2,172
41	North East Lincolnshire	£206.2m	£1,291	£2,157
42	Redcar and Cleveland	£174.4m	£1,257	£2,151
43	Waltham Forest	£423.7m	£1,493	£2,135
44	Pendle	£127.5m	£1,279	£2,113
45	Peterborough	£298.6m	£1,332	£2,106
46	Torfaen	£119.3m	£1,269	£2,097
47	Islington	£363.0m	£1,605	£2,096
48	Eastbourne	£128.1m	£1,229	£2,091
49	Southend-on-Sea	£236.5m	£1,282	£2,077
50	Harlow	£129.6m	£1,321	£2,075

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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