Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
Welfare state in the UK - Statistics & Facts
In 2025/26, the government of the United Kingdom is expected to spend approximately 379 billion British pounds on Social Protection, by far the biggest spending function of the state in this financial year. As a share of GDP, social security spending accounted for 10.1 percent of GDP in 2022/23, followed by health at 8.4 percent, and education on 4.2 percent. Although social security spending has been the government's main outlay for several decades, the share of GDP spent on health has increased quite substantially in the last few decades, especially at the expense of defense spending, which the UK spent more on during the mid 1980s.
Cradle to the Grave
The UK's modern welfare state was established in the aftermath of the Second World War, following a landslide victory for the Labour Party in the 1945 election. Key to their victory was their commitment to social reform, and the adoption of the wartime Beveridge Report, which highlighted a need to defeat "want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness." The establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 made health services free at the point of use for everyone in the country, a significant landmark in modern British history. By that point, free state education was now provided up until the age of 15, while the National Insurance Act of 1946 created the foundation of the modern benefit system.Pensions in the UK
When social protection spending itself is broken down, spending related to old age benefits accounted for 155.6 billion of the 360 billion the government spent in 2023/24. This is mainly due to the cost of the UK's State Pension, which the government spent approximately 124.1 billion on in that financial year. The State Pension, along with other old age benefits, has helped to drive down the share of pensioners living in poverty. In 1994/95, for example, approximately 28.1 percent of pensioners were defined as living in relative poverty, with this falling to 15.3 percent by 2023/24. Under the current "Triple Lock" system, the state pension rises each year in line with either inflation, average earnings, or a rate of 2.5 percent, depending on which is highest. Other benefits that have helped drive the fall in pensioner poverty include the Winter Fuel Payment, a previously universal benefit for pensioners, which was changed in 2024 to be means tested. Withdrawing this payment for large numbers of pensioners was, however, deeply unpopular, and the payment looks set to be reinstated for more pensioners in 2025.
