Enfield’s rate of 21.4% is the highest in London and continues to rise, reports Richard Cubitt

Industrial areas such as Brimsdown employ thousands of people — Industrial areas such as Brimsdown still employ thousands of people but haven’t prevented rising unemployment rates locally

Enfield continues to have the highest rate of out-of-work benefits claimants of any London borough – and the percentage is rising.

According to the latest data from Trust for London, a charity which monitors poverty across London, 21.4% of working-age residents in Enfield are now claiming out-of-work benefits.

Enfield has had the highest London rate for two years, with the next nearest borough being Barking and Dagenham on 19.6%.

The local rate has been rising every year since 2022, and the latest figures show another rise from 20.3% in the third quarter of 2024 up to 21.4% in the third quarter of 2025.

Trust for London started publishing its poverty profile in 2019, which is run in partnership with WPI Economics.

In response to the latest data on out-of-work benefit claimants in Enfield, a spokesperson for Enfield Council said the authority was “already supporting” residents to find employment opportunities, including hosting regular jobs fairs.

All London boroughs saw an increase in the number of people claiming out-of-work benefits between 2024 and 2025, with Tower Hamlets showing the fastest rise, from 16.2% to 18%.

Trust for London’s research also found that the unemployment rate – which differs from the out-of-work benefit claimant rate as it only covers people who are actively seeking work – was 6.3% in Enfield, representing a 1.6 percentage-point rise over the year.

The charity describes Enfield as an “extremely unequal borough” as it includes some extremely affluent neighbourhoods, but also some of the city’s most deprived.

They also found that 35% of children in Enfield live in poverty, compared to the London average of 30%.

Last year, a major government report on deprivation made similar findings about the borough. This data was subsequently used to adjust the amount of money the local authority receives from government through its local funding settlement, with Enfield Council set to see a £203million rise to its ‘core spending power’ over three years.

Colin Lee-Own, a community leader who runs 21K Digital Media in Edmonton Green where young people can access career development and mentoring opportunities, points to the decline of local manufacturing industries and delayed progress with the Meridian Water development as reasons for Enfield’s out-of-work benefits rate being so high.

He told the Dispatch: “The service sector is fine. We have Asda, we have Tesco, we have Home Bargains and all these supermarkets offering local residents’ employment, but they can only do so much. They cannot replace the thousands of local jobs that once enabled 60% or 70% of local people to get employment.”

Colin also expressed his hope that some of the £203m from the government’s recent funding review would be spent on addressing the low employment rate in Enfield.

A council spokesperson said: “Different organisations measure economic inactivity in different ways, so we are not able to directly verify the figures reported by Trust for London.

“We are investing in a range of targeted programmes to support residents into work, including tailored one-to-one support through STEP [the council’s employment support service], skills and training opportunities, and initiatives to help people explore self-employment and business start-ups.

“Through this work, we are already supporting thousands of residents to build skills, access opportunities and move into sustained employment.”

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