Who Gets What

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Enfield has the highest spending on working-age benefits per person aged 16 to 64 in 2024-25.

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.

Spending on working-age benefits, per person aged 16 to 64, 2024-25, by local authority

Selected East Lothian: £1,727 per person aged 16 to 64, 2024-25, 220th of 350 local authorities.

Per person aged 16 to 64, low to high

  1. Under £1,407
  2. £1,407 to £1,766
  3. £1,766 to £2,124
  4. £2,124 to £2,483
  5. £2,483 to £2,841
  6. £2,841 and over
  • Estimated value
Spending on working-age benefits, per person aged 16 to 64, 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 16 to 64 are drawn in dark lines, and the selected area in gold.

TotalPer residentPer person aged 16 to 641350Enfield 1Blackpool 2Hackney 3Hartlepool 4Haringey 5Brent 6Thanet 7Knowsley 8Blaenau Gwent 9Barking and Dagenham 10East Lothian 220

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.

Benefit
£3.6bnFebruary 2023+£40.9mPopulation+£579.2mShare claiming+£217.0mPayment size£4.4bnMarch 2026
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. East Lothian has no figures for this benefit, so Great Britain is shown.

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.

Chart step
This chart needs JavaScript. Each area's expected level is on its area page.
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, 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 working-age benefits for every local authority, 2024-25
RankNotes
1Enfield£853.3m£2,575£3,997
2Blackpool£316.7m£2,209£3,594
3Hackney£663.3m£2,469£3,345
4Hartlepool£198.8m£2,031£3,327
5Haringey£631.3m£2,351£3,287
6Brent£801.2m£2,254£3,230
7Thanet£265.6m£1,869£3,207
8Knowsley£324.3m£2,005£3,200
9Blaenau Gwent£131.7m£1,946£3,155
10Barking and Dagenham£492.6m£2,097£3,136
11Middlesbrough£304.9m£1,971£3,124
12Merthyr Tydfil£111.1m£1,892£3,076
13Hastings£171.0m£1,879£3,054
14Great Yarmouth£177.2m£1,761£3,021
15West Dunbartonshire£167.2m£1,882£3,014Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
16North Ayrshire£240.1m£1,794£3,005Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
17Birmingham£2.3bn£1,965£3,004
18Inverclyde£145.4m£1,847£2,998Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
19Liverpool£1.0bn£2,017£2,976
20Burnley£181.3m£1,828£2,965
21Oldham£455.8m£1,818£2,938
22Bradford£1.0bn£1,811£2,912
23Neath Port Talbot£252.9m£1,773£2,908
24Rochdale£420.9m£1,791£2,895
25Kingston upon Hull, City of£514.0m£1,871£2,894
26South Tyneside£263.9m£1,751£2,893
27Redcar and Cleveland£233.0m£1,679£2,873
28Hyndburn£151.6m£1,765£2,848
29Blackburn with Darwen£290.5m£1,798£2,847
30Walsall£510.8m£1,734£2,820
31Tendring£240.5m£1,537£2,819
32Torfaen£159.7m£1,698£2,806
33Halton£228.7m£1,742£2,806
34Tower Hamlets£729.9m£2,171£2,792
35Sunderland£491.9m£1,716£2,771
36Lewisham£599.2m£1,981£2,764
37Wolverhampton£485.9m£1,732£2,760
38Manchester£1.2bn£1,967£2,759
39Sandwell£618.9m£1,752£2,756
40North East Lincolnshire£261.4m£1,636£2,735
41Newham£760.5m£2,004£2,734
42Glasgow City£1.3bn£1,940£2,734Estimated, Includes Scottish benefits
43Caerphilly£295.2m£1,675£2,731
44Ealing£724.6m£1,869£2,700
45Pendle£162.0m£1,626£2,685
46Torbay£212.9m£1,522£2,663
47Wirral£519.0m£1,581£2,652
48Denbighshire£148.9m£1,521£2,651
49Croydon£713.3m£1,746£2,638
50Nottingham£611.5m£1,850£2,635

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

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