What government spending decisions cost every UK household — updated daily. Source: OBR · HMT · ONS 2026/27 projections.
| Spending Category | National Total | Per Household / Year | Per Household / Month | Trend | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NHS & Health Hospitals, GPs, mental health, prescriptions |
£272bn | £9,429 | £786 / mo | ↑ | OBR 2026 |
Social Protection Excl. State Pension — Universal Credit, housing, disability |
£198bn | £6,868 | £572 / mo | ↑ | DWP 2026 |
State Pension New State Pension, Basic State Pension, pension credit |
£130bn | £4,510 | £376 / mo | ↑ | DWP 2026 |
Education Schools, further education, universities, skills |
£118bn | £4,095 | £341 / mo | → | HMT 2026 |
Debt Interest Interest on £2.87 trillion national debt |
£124bn | £4,302 | £358 / mo | ↑ | OBR 2026 |
Defence Armed forces, equipment, intelligence, NATO commitments |
£60bn | £2,081 | £173 / mo | ↑ | MOD 2026 |
Transport Roads, rail infrastructure, local transport grants |
£43bn | £1,492 | £124 / mo | → | DfT 2026 |
Housing & Communities Affordable housing, planning, local authority grants |
£28bn | £971 | £81 / mo | ↑ | MHCLG 2026 |
| Total (these 8 categories) | £973bn | £33,748 | £2,812 / mo | Note: individual categories rounded; total is summed | |
Per-household figures use 28.83 million UK households (ONS 2024). National totals are HM Treasury / OBR Spring Statement 2026/27 projections. Figures rounded to nearest £1 per household. Not all government spending is covered; total UK DEL + AME is approximately £1,247bn.
These figures show what each major area of UK government spending costs in terms of the tax burden it places on every household. To calculate the per-household cost, we take HM Treasury and OBR published spending totals for 2026/27 and divide by the number of UK households (28.83 million, per ONS 2024 estimates). This is not what each household directly receives — it is a way of illustrating the scale of collective spending commitment in personal terms.
The purpose is transparency, not argument. Whether you think the NHS should receive more or less funding is a political question — the numbers here are simply what the current allocations mean for the average UK household's implicit tax liability. Debt interest is included because it represents past spending decisions that current households are now funding. Trend arrows indicate year-on-year changes in real terms where OBR projections show movement of more than 2%.
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