How does my area compare?

Enfield has the highest spending on working-age benefits per person aged 16 to 64 in 2023-24.

Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker's Allowance, Income Support and Carer's Allowance, with Carer Support Payment in Scotland. Disability benefits are paid at all ages, so they are shown separately. Shown in 2026-27 prices, adjusted for inflation so that years can be compared.

Per person aged 16 to 64, low to high

Under £1,216
£1,216 to £1,527
£1,527 to £1,839
£1,839 to £2,151
£2,151 to £2,462
£2,462 and over

Estimated value

Spending on working-age benefits, per person aged 16 to 64, 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 16 to 64 are drawn in dark lines.

What changed

More people, more claims or bigger payments?

Great Britain, Carer's Allowance and Carer Support Payment: 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: Carer's Allowance and Carer Support Payment
February 2023	£3.6bn
Population	+£40.9m
Share claiming	+£579.2m
Payment size	+£217.0m
March 2026	£4.4bn

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. Scottish areas are left out because Social Security Scotland pays this benefit.

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 working-age benefits, 2023-24. 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 working-age benefits for every local authority, 2023-24
Rank					Notes
1	Enfield	£695.2m	£2,102	£3,265
2	Blackpool	£281.3m	£1,974	£3,207
3	Hartlepool	£177.3m	£1,852	£3,030
4	Middlesbrough	£272.2m	£1,777	£2,815
5	Thanet	£229.8m	£1,632	£2,809
6	Barking and Dagenham	£422.3m	£1,853	£2,791
7	Haringey	£530.3m	£1,984	£2,777
8	Knowsley	£277.2m	£1,742	£2,774
9	Blaenau Gwent	£115.6m	£1,713	£2,770
10	Hastings	£153.0m	£1,680	£2,728
11	Inverclyde	£131.6m	£1,674	£2,702	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
12	Brent	£661.4m	£1,878	£2,690
13	Great Yarmouth	£157.7m	£1,570	£2,686
14	Merthyr Tydfil	£96.8m	£1,648	£2,671
15	North Ayrshire	£213.7m	£1,597	£2,661	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
16	West Dunbartonshire	£146.9m	£1,654	£2,639	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
17	Burnley	£157.8m	£1,621	£2,627
18	Hackney	£517.1m	£1,933	£2,621
19	Neath Port Talbot	£222.1m	£1,567	£2,578
20	Kingston upon Hull, City of	£451.4m	£1,652	£2,554
21	Liverpool	£871.3m	£1,732	£2,553
22	Oldham	£388.3m	£1,571	£2,547
23	South Tyneside	£231.3m	£1,545	£2,547
24	Rochdale	£361.3m	£1,566	£2,536
25	Redcar and Cleveland	£204.5m	£1,484	£2,531
26	Birmingham	£1.9bn	£1,636	£2,510
27	Halton	£202.3m	£1,554	£2,499
28	Torfaen	£140.0m	£1,497	£2,470
29	Hyndburn	£128.7m	£1,522	£2,464
30	Blackburn with Darwen	£245.3m	£1,547	£2,457
31	North East Lincolnshire	£233.7m	£1,473	£2,455
32	Wolverhampton	£421.6m	£1,533	£2,447
33	Sunderland	£422.8m	£1,496	£2,420
34	Tendring	£203.3m	£1,317	£2,415
35	Manchester	£992.7m	£1,707	£2,405
36	Glasgow City	£1.1bn	£1,704	£2,403	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
37	Caerphilly	£258.7m	£1,468	£2,396
38	Walsall	£425.4m	£1,464	£2,393
39	Croydon	£635.2m	£1,580	£2,392
40	Lewisham	£515.6m	£1,711	£2,391
41	Bradford	£827.3m	£1,486	£2,388
42	Tower Hamlets	£612.1m	£1,833	£2,364
43	Newham	£643.4m	£1,721	£2,362
44	Sandwell	£522.0m	£1,494	£2,353
45	East Ayrshire	£174.1m	£1,441	£2,348	Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
46	Ealing	£610.1m	£1,598	£2,318
47	Torbay	£184.5m	£1,320	£2,310
48	Tameside	£340.6m	£1,445	£2,303
49	Eastbourne	£140.6m	£1,353	£2,297
50	Wirral	£445.0m	£1,368	£2,296

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, Social Security Scotland, 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?

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