National finances
Public finances
Curated published figures comparing annual tax take, welfare, NHS England, England school funding, central government debt interest and UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) (flows) with the stock of net public-sector pension liabilities. Includes £ per UK household using the latest ONS household count. Not a live feed; update this JSON when HMRC, DWP/HMT, DHSC, DfE, FCDO SID, PSS or WGA republish.
Tax revenues
Annual flow£875.90bn
HMRC total tax revenues
£30,203 per households
- Period ·
- financial year 2024 to 2025
- As of ·
- year ended 31 March 2025
- Basis ·
- accruals (tax revenues, not cash receipts)
HMRC accrued tax revenues for 2024–25 (£875.9bn), up £32.5bn on 2023–24. Cash receipts are published separately in the HMRC tax receipts bulletin and differ in timing and coverage.
Benefits spending
Annual flow£334.30bn
Social security benefits (WGA)
£11,528 per households
- Period ·
- financial year 2024 to 2025
- As of ·
- year ended 31 March 2025
- Basis ·
- Whole of Government Accounts expenditure
Largest single expenditure area in WGA 2024–25. Includes state pensions and other social security; definitions differ from DWP benefit tables and from OBR ‘welfare’ forecasts.
NHS England
Annual flowEngland£187.00bn
NHS England spending (DHSC / WGA)
£6,448 per households
- Period ·
- financial year 2024 to 2025
- As of ·
- year ended 31 March 2025
- Basis ·
- NHS England RDEL excluding depreciation (England); cited in WGA from DHSC ARA
WGA headline: £187bn spent towards delivering NHS England in 2024–25. Matches DHSC ARA statement of NHS England’s £187bn RDEL (excluding depreciation). England only — not UK-wide health spending.
Schools (England)
Annual flowEngland£61.60bn
School revenue funding (England, ages 5–16)
£2,124 per households
- Period ·
- financial year 2024 to 2025
- As of ·
- year ended 31 March 2025
- Basis ·
- DfE school revenue funding allocations (cash terms); not whole DfE / education DEL
Official statistics time series: £61.6bn cash-terms revenue funding to state-funded schools in England for pupils aged 5–16 in 2024–25 (CSV field school_funding_cashterms_gbpm = 61,600). Not capital; not early years / 16–19 / HE; not UK-wide education.
Debt interest
Annual flow£84.80bn
Central government debt interest
£2,924 per households
- Period ·
- financial year 2024 to 2025
- As of ·
- year ended 31 March 2025
- Basis ·
- HM Treasury Public Spending Statistics — expenditure on services (central government own)
PSS: expenditure on ‘Central government debt interest’ rose from £82.9bn in 2023–24 to £84.8bn in 2024–25 (+2.2%). Annual flow of debt service — not the PSND stock (see debt clock).
Foreign aid (ODA)
Annual flow£14.08bn
UK Official Development Assistance (ODA)
£486 per households
- Period ·
- calendar year 2024
- As of ·
- year ended 31 December 2024
- Basis ·
- OECD DAC ODA (calendar year, grant-equivalent / cash flow); not financial-year FCDO DEL
Final SID: UK ODA was £14,082 million in calendar year 2024 (0.50% of GNI), down £1,262 million (8.2%) on 2023. ODA is the OECD DAC measure across all departments — not the FCDO ‘aid budget’ alone, and not FCDO Total DEL. Prefer final 2024 over provisional 2025 SID until the final 2025 release appears.
Pension liabilities
Balance-sheet stock£1396.00bn
Net public sector pension liability
£48,138 per households (stock)
- Period ·
- balance sheet date
- As of ·
- 31 March 2025
- Basis ·
- IFRS present value (discounted); highly sensitive to the discount rate
Stock of net obligations to current and former public-sector employees under public service pension schemes. Not the same as the annual state-pension benefit flow, and not the same as PSND. Per-household figure is stock ÷ households — not an annual bill.
£ per household
Divisor: 29.0 million uk households (calendar year 2025). ONS — Families and households in the UK: 2025. Labour Force Survey estimate of 29.0 million UK households in 2025 (bulletin released 17 April 2026). Used as the shared divisor for every £-per-household line.
Formula · Per household = metric value (GBP) ÷ 29,000,000 UK households (ONS 2025). England-only flows (NHS England; England school revenue funding) are labelled as such — dividing by UK households is a scale illustration, not an England-only share.
Tax revenues
annual flow ÷ households
£30,203
Benefits spending
annual flow ÷ households
£11,528
NHS England
annual flow ÷ households · England
£6,448
Schools (England)
annual flow ÷ households · England
£2,124
Debt interest
annual flow ÷ households
£2,924
Foreign aid (ODA)
annual flow ÷ households
£486
Pension liabilities
stock ÷ households
£48,138
Household count as of 2025 (ONS Families and households bulletin) (29,000,000).
Comparisons
Benefits vs tax revenues
38.2%
Benefits spending (£334.3bn) were 38.2% of tax revenues (£875.9bn) in 2024-25. Both are annual flows.
NHS England vs tax revenues
21.3%
NHS England (£187bn) was 21.3% of tax revenues in 2024-25. England NHS flow vs UK tax flow.
Schools vs tax revenues
7.0%
Schools (England) (£61.6bn) was 7.0% of tax revenues in 2024-25. England school revenue funding vs UK tax.
Debt interest vs tax revenues
9.7%
Debt interest (£84.8bn) was 9.7% of tax revenues in 2024-25. Both are annual flows.
ODA vs tax revenues
1.6%
Foreign aid (ODA) (£14.082bn, 2024) was 1.6% of tax revenues (£875.9bn, 2024-25). Both are annual flows; ODA is calendar-year SID, tax is FY HMRC.
Pension liabilities vs annual tax
1.59×
The £1,396bn pension liability stock is about 1.59 times one year of HMRC tax revenues (£875.9bn). Scale only — not cash due this year.
Tax revenues after benefits
£541.6bn
Same-year arithmetic residual of the two flows (2024-25). Remaining receipts fund everything else (health, education, debt interest, foreign aid, defence, local government, etc.).
Related published figures
Related to Benefits spending
DWP Total AME outturn (mostly benefits): £287.90bn in 2024-25. DWP — Annual report and accounts 2024 to 2025. Narrower departmental AME outturn (£287.9bn). WGA social security benefits (£334.3bn) is the broader consolidated figure used for the main comparison.
Related to NHS England
Health and Social Care Total DEL (PSS): £204.70bn in 2024-25. HM Treasury — Public Spending Statistics: July 2025. Broader DHSC departmental Total DEL (£204.7bn) including central DHSC and other ALBs — not NHS England alone.
Related to Schools (England)
Education Total DEL (PSS — whole Education departmental group): £94.79bn in 2024-25. HM Treasury — Public Spending Statistics: July 2025. Broader Education Total DEL (£94.79bn) covers the DfE group beyond core school revenue funding for ages 5–16. Labelled separately so schools are not confused with whole education.
Related to Debt interest
WGA interest costs on government borrowing: £66.70bn in 2024-25. HM Treasury — Whole of Government Accounts 2024-25. IFRS WGA line ‘Interest costs on government borrowing’ (£66.7bn). Different accounting boundary from PSS central government debt interest (£84.8bn).
Related to Foreign aid (ODA)
FCDO Total DEL (PSS — departmental budget, not UK ODA): £10.92bn in 2024-25. HM Treasury — Public Spending Statistics: May 2026. FCDO Total DEL outturn (£10.916bn) is the department’s financial-year budgeting total and mixes ODA and non-ODA diplomacy/consular spend. It is not the UK ODA total and is not directly comparable to calendar-year SID ODA. In calendar 2024 FCDO itself spent £9,469m of ODA (67.2% of UK ODA) per the same SID release.
Methodology
- Figures are copied from published HMRC, HM Treasury (WGA / PSS), DHSC, DfE, FCDO (SID) and ONS documents into data/processed/uk-public-finances.json — no scraping of unofficial dashboards and no invented interpolations.
- Tax, benefits, NHS England, school funding and debt interest are annual flows for 2024–25. UK ODA is a calendar-year 2024 flow (OECD DAC / SID). Pension liabilities are a stock at 31 March 2025.
- £ per household = each metric’s GBP value ÷ 29.0 million UK households (ONS Families and households in the UK: 2025). Formula shown on the page; England-only flows are labelled.
- HMRC ‘tax revenues’ are accruals-based; HMRC also publishes cash ‘receipts’ which will not match pound-for-pound.
- WGA social security benefits (£334.3bn) is preferred for the headline welfare flow; DWP Total AME (£287.9bn) is shown as a related narrower departmental outturn.
- NHS headline is WGA/DHSC £187bn for NHS England (RDEL ex-depreciation), not the broader Health and Social Care Total DEL (£204.7bn).
- Schools headline is DfE school funding statistics £61.6bn (England, ages 5–16 revenue funding), not Education Total DEL (£94.79bn).
- Debt interest headline is PSS central government debt interest (£84.8bn); WGA interest costs on government borrowing (£66.7bn) is a related IFRS measure.
- Foreign aid headline is final UK ODA £14.082bn for calendar year 2024 (FCDO SID). ODA is not the same as FCDO Total DEL (£10.916bn, PSS May 2026, FY 2024–25) or ‘the aid budget’ alone; FCDO provided £9.469bn of that ODA.
- Pension liability valuations move sharply when discount rates change; those revaluations are accounting movements, not cash paid in the year.
- Update this file after each HMRC ARA, DWP ARA, DHSC ARA, DfE school funding release, FCDO SID (provisional/final ODA), PSS/PESA, WGA and ONS households release.
Snapshot curated into this app 14 Sept 2026. Also see the UK debt clock for ONS public sector net debt (a different stock) and gilt yields for Bank of England end-of-day par yields (a rate, not a stock). NHS England waiting-list stocks (not this spending flow) are on housing and NHS waits.