How much does the UK spend on benefits?

DWP's benefit expenditure and caseload tables give annual spending on every benefit it runs in Great Britain, with outturn for past years and forecasts for the years ahead. They are updated after each Budget and spring forecast.

Pensioner benefits, mainly the State Pension, account for more than half of the total. When a claim talks about "welfare spending", check whether it includes pensions, housing support and tax credits, and whether it is in cash or real terms.

Official sources: Benefit expenditure and caseload tables · OBR welfare spending

The latest figure

The newest value is at Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). More on it: People on Universal Credit (Great Britain).

When is the next figure out?

Quarterly bulletins on GOV.UK at 9:30am; the release to 14 May 2026 was published on 18 August 2026, the next (to 13 August 2026) is confirmed for 17 November 2026 and the following for 16 February 2027. Detailed monthly data are in Stat-Xplore, whose API needs a free key

Every official release due in the next two weeks is on the release calendar.

Terms used in this answer

• Cash terms
  A money figure stated at the prices of the time it refers to, with no adjustment for inflation. Also called nominal terms.
• Departmental expenditure limits (DEL) and annually managed expenditure (AME)
  The two halves of UK public spending: DEL is the budget each department is given, AME is spending such as pensions and benefits that depends on demand.
• Claimant count
  The number of people claiming benefits principally because they are unemployed: Jobseeker's Allowance and Universal Credit claimants required to look for work.
• Administrative data
  Information collected by organisations while running a service, such as tax records, benefit claims or hospital activity, and then used to produce statistics.
• Great Britain and the United Kingdom
  Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales. The United Kingdom is Great Britain plus Northern Ireland. Some statistics cover only one or the other.
• Headcount
  A count of individual people, each counted once regardless of how many hours they work or how many posts they hold.

Where the figures come from

• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) official statistics
  Find HMRC monthly tax receipts and NICs, annual receipts, income tax liabilities, the tax gap, personal incomes and UK trade data, and how to read them.
• Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)
  Where to find OBR forecasts, policy costings, the public finances databank and 300 years of fiscal data, and how to test tax and spending pledges.

Related questions

• How many people get the State Pension?
• How much is lost to benefit fraud?
• How many people claim benefits in the UK?

This answer says where the official figures are published and how they are defined. It gives no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request. More questions about benefits and pensions: all Benefits and pensions questions.