In 2024/25 the United Kingdom spent an estimated 313 billion British pounds on welfare, compared with 297 billion pounds in the previous year.

In 2024/25 the UK government is expected to spend approximately ******billion British pounds on benefits, compared with the previous year when benefit expenditure was ******billion pounds.

Social protection spending in the United Kingdom reached 383.9 billion British pounds in 2024/25, compared with 364.7 billion pounds in the previous year.

In 2022/23 the UK spent approximately 10.2 percent of its GDP on social security, compared with 10.7 percent in the previous year.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Social and Welfare Statistics (previously Social Expenditure Database) available via the UK Data Service includes the following databases:

The OECD Social Expenditure Database (SOCX) has been developed in order to serve a growing need for indicators of social policy. It includes reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and mandatory and voluntary private social expenditure at programme level. SOCX provides a unique tool for monitoring trends in aggregate social expenditure and analysing changes in its composition. The main social policy areas are as follows: old age, survivors, incapacity-related benefits, health, family, active labour market programmes, unemployment, housing, and other social policy areas.

The Income Distribution database contains comparable data on the distribution of household income, providing both a point of reference for judging the performance of any country and an opportunity to assess the role of common drivers as well as drivers that are country-specific. They also allow governments to draw on the experience of different countries in order to learn "what works best" in narrowing income disparities and poverty. But achieving comparability in this field is also difficult, as national practices differ widely in terms of concepts, measures, and statistical sources.

The Child Wellbeing dataset compare 21 policy-focussed measures of child well-being in six areas, chosen to cover the major aspects of children’s lives: material well being; housing and environment; education; health and safety; risk behaviours; and quality of school life.

The Better Life Index: There is more to life than the cold numbers of GDP and economic statistics. This Index allows you to compare well-being across countries, based on 11 topics the OECD has identified as essential, in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life.

The Social Expenditure data were first provided by the UK Data Service in March 2004.

In 2024/25, public spending on social protection in the United Kingdom was ***** British pounds per capita, ranging from ***** pounds per capita in Northern Ireland, to ***** pounds per capita in South East England.

Forecast: General Government Expenditure on Social Protection in the UK 2023 - 2027 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Issue ownership theory posits that when social welfare is electorally salient, left-wing parties gain public support by rhetorically emphasizing social welfare issues. There is less research, however, on whether left-wing governing parties benefit from increasing social welfare spending. That is, it is not known whether leftist governments gain from acting on the issues they rhetorically emphasize. This article presents arguments that voters will not react to governments’ social welfare rhetoric, and reviews the conflicting arguments about how government support responds to social welfare spending. It then reports time-series, cross-sectional analyses of data on government support, governments’ social welfare rhetoric and social welfare spending from Britain, Spain and the United States, that support the prediction that government rhetoric has no effects. The article estimates, however, that increased social welfare spending sharply depresses support for both left- and right-wing governments. These findings highlight a strategic dilemma for left-wing governments, which lose public support when they act on their social welfare rhetoric by increasing welfare spending.

Forecast: Total Expenditure on Gross Social Protection in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

United Kingdom UK: Expenditure: Subsidies and Other Transfers data was reported at 419,179.000 GBP mn in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 419,969.000 GBP mn for 2015. United Kingdom UK: Expenditure: Subsidies and Other Transfers data is updated yearly, averaging 160,609.000 GBP mn from Dec 1972 (Median) to 2016, with 45 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 419,969.000 GBP mn in 2015 and a record low of 5,761.000 GBP mn in 1972. United Kingdom UK: Expenditure: Subsidies and Other Transfers data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.World Bank: Government Revenue, Expenditure and Finance. Subsidies, grants, and other social benefits include all unrequited, nonrepayable transfers on current account to private and public enterprises; grants to foreign governments, international organizations, and other government units; and social security, social assistance benefits, and employer social benefits in cash and in kind.; ; International Monetary Fund, Government Finance Statistics Yearbook and data files.; ;

In 2024/25, the UK spent approximately 13.3 percent of its GDP on social protection, unchanged from the previous year.

This summary provides information about the money spent on adult social care by the social services departments of Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities (CASSRs) in England. It contains information taken from CASSR administrative systems used to record personal social services expenditure and income. The data are used by central government for public accountability, policy monitoring and national accounts, and by local authorities to assess their performance in relation to their peers. This report combines data from 152 CASSRs provided via the Personal Social Services: Expenditure and Unit Costs return (PSS-EX1) and relates to the period 1 April to 31 March each year.

Forecast: Government Expenditure on R&D in Social Sciences in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Total expenditure by Local Authorities on key benefits: Attendance Allowance, Bereavement Benefit/Widow's Benefit Below State Pension Age, Bereavement Benefit/Widow's Benefit State Pension Age, Council Tax Benefit, Disability Living Allowance Housing Benefit, Incapacity Benefit/Severe Disablement Allowance Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance, State Pension, Winter Fuel Payments https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-expenditure-by-local-authority Source: Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Publisher: DWP Statistical and Accounting Data Geographies: Local Authority District (LAD), Government Office Region (GOR), National, Parliamentary Constituency Geographic coverage: Great Britain Time coverage: 2000/01 to 2011/12 Type of data: Administrative data

Government spending in the United Kingdom was last recorded at 44.0 percent of GDP in 2024 . This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United Kingdom Government Spending to GDP - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

This analysis, produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), examines how taxes and benefits redistribute income between various groups of households in the United Kingdom. It shows where different types of households and individuals are in the income distribution and looks at the changing levels of income inequality over time. The main sources of data for this study are:

• Family Expenditure Survey (FES) from 1977-2001
• Expenditure and Food Survey (EFS) from 2001-2007
• Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) from 2008 to 2017
• Household Finances Survey (HFS) from 2018 onwards
  

Some variables have been created by combining data from the LCF (previously FES or EFS) with control totals from a variety of different government sources, including:

• United Kingdom National Accounts (ONS Blue Book)
• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
• Department for Transport (DfT)
• Department of Health (DH)
• Department for Education and Employment (DfEE)
• Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)

For further information, see the ONS Effects of taxes and benefits on household income webpage.

Users should note that the combined ETB household (1977-2021) and person (2018-2021) datasets replace all previous individual year files, which have been withdrawn from use at the depositor's request.

Latest edition information

For the fourth edition (December 2025), replacement data and documentation for 2022 and 2023, and new data/documentation for 2024 were added to the study.

Method of Data Collection

The ETB has been produced each year since 1961 and is an annual analysis looking at how taxes and benefits affect the income of households in the UK.

Since 2018, the estimates in this analysis are based on data derived from the HFS Survey (the HCF is not currently held by the UK Data Service). The HFS is an annual survey of the expenditure and income of private households. People living in hotels, lodging houses, and in institutions such as old people's homes are excluded. Each person aged 16 and over keeps a full record of payments made during 14 consecutive days and answers questions about hire purchase and other payments; children aged 7 to 15 keep a simplified diary. The respondents also give detailed information, where appropriate, about income (including cash benefits received from the state) and payments of Income Tax. Information on age, occupation, education received, family composition and housing tenure is also obtained. The survey is continuous, interviews being spread evenly over the year to ensure that seasonal effects are covered. The Family Spending publication also includes an outline of the survey design.

The HFS data used in this analysis are grossed so that totals reflect the total population of private households in the UK. The weights are produced in two stages. First, the data are weighted to compensate for non-response (sample-based weighting). The non-response weights are then calibrated so that weighted totals match population totals for males and females in different age groups and for different regions and countries (population-based weighting). The results in the analysis are weighted so that statistics represent the total population in private households in the UK based on 2011 Census data. In 2013/14, an additional calibration to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) employment totals was also applied.

There are a number of different measures of income used, the most common of which is probably household disposable income. This is the total income households receive from employment (including self-employment), income from private pensions, investments and other sources, plus cash benefits (including the state pension), minus direct taxes (including income tax, NI and council tax). Income is normally analysed at the household level as this provides a better measure of people's economic well-being; while income is usually received by individuals, it is normally shared with other household members (e.g. spouse/partner and children).

In 2018/19 a further adjustment was applied to the data to adjust for the under coverage and under-reporting of income of the richest individuals. This method is often referred to as the 'SPI adjustment' owing to its use of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC's) Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI). For further details please see the ETB https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/methodologies/theeffectsoftaxesandbenefitsonukhouseholdincome">Quality and Methodology Information webpage and the https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/articles/theeffectsoftaxesandbenefitsonhouseholdincome/financialyearending2019">Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income Technical Report.

Data Sources

The Household Finances Survey (HFS) is the source of the microdata on households from 2018 onwards. Previously, the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) was the data source. Derived variables are created using information from HFS and control totals from a variety of different government sources including the United Kingdom National Accounts (ONS Blue Book), HM Revenue and Customs, Department for Transport, Department of Health, Department for Education and Employment, and Department for Communities and Local Government.

Secure Access version

A Secure Access version of the ETB is available from the UK Data Archive under SN 8253, subject to stringent access conditions. The Secure Access version includes variables that are not included in the standard End User Licence (EUL) version, including case number, age and economic position of chief economic supporter, and government office region. Users are strongly advised to check whether the EUL version is sufficient for their needs before considering an application for the Secure Access version.