Benefit spending, Great Britain
Spending on benefits paid by the Department for Work and Pensions in Great Britain, £ billion in cash terms, each financial year over 20 years.
Benefit spending
£289.3bn
2024/25
Verified against source, 1 November 2026, 12:26 UTCSource: Department for Work and Pensions. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
20 rows
| Category | Benefit spending |
|---|---|
| 2005/06 | £115.8bn |
| 2006/07 | £119.2bn |
| 2007/08 | £126.2bn |
| 2008/09 | £135.8bn |
| 2009/10 | £148.1bn |
| 2010/11 | £153.5bn |
| 2011/12 | £159.1bn |
| 2012/13 | £166.6bn |
| 2013/14 | £164.2bn |
| 2014/15 | £168.4bn |
| 2015/16 | £171.9bn |
| 2016/17 | £173.9bn |
| 2017/18 | £178.1bn |
| 2018/19 | £183.8bn |
| 2019/20 | £192.6bn |
| 2020/21 | £213.2bn |
| 2021/22 | £217.6bn |
| 2022/23 | £233.1bn |
| 2023/24 | £267.9bn |
| 2024/25 | £289.3bn |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Department for Work and Pensions
- Check it yourself
- https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 1 November 2026, 12:17 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2026SHA-256 9fd9682c870b8b98b3847444f00075c60d7b2e1ed7bdff257f52e9df619d000a · 17,171 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69dcdc56d3e08b8871b66628/outturn-and-forecast-tables-spring-forecast-2026.odsSHA-256 705fb8fb5ace47e37eafe0b3817d5a6de538ce8fb2a67746e8f92d15ecd616e6 · 1,646,400 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 1 November 2026, 12:26 UTC Run at 1 November 2026, 12:26 UTC; 20 of 20 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Department for Work and Pensions; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-01T12:17:31Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 20 of 20 figures and the headline reproduced |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 20 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 20 of 20 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches |
| Pass | GOV.UK table is current | latest period 2024/25 ended 580 days before retrieval (limit 800), from Outturn and forecast tables: Spring Forecast 2026 |
| Pass | Children, working age and pensioners sum to the total | 20 of 20 figures match the sum of the three age groups in each year |
| Pass | Excel edition agrees | 20 of 20 figures match https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69dcdc8c6b695d635c34dcc4/outturn-and-forecast-tables-spring-forecast-2026.xlsx |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Cash terms, not adjusted for inflation, from DWP's outturn figures; DWP's forecasts in the same tables are left out.