Inside UK’s jobless capital where more than half of adults claim benefs | Politics | News

Central Grimsby has been named as the UK’s worklessness capital with more than half of adults claiming benefits.

Fifty-three percent of people in the seaside town’s East Marsh and Port neighbourhoods were on welfare in the first three months of this year, according to a forthcoming Channel 4 documentary.

It reports that 33% of locals claim sickness benefits, 11% receive Jobseekers’ Allowance and 9% are on other benefits, according to new analysis, reports The Telegraph.

More than half of residents live in social housing in central Grimsby where life expectancy of 70 is 12 years below the national average.

Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, Britain’s Benefits Scandal, found over three million people are on long-term sickness benefits in the UK, a rise of one million in five years.

A staggering £48billion is being spent on sickness and disability benefits for people of working age, according to the documentary.

Presenter Fraser Nelson said in a trailer for the programme that this is the greatest challenge the new government is facing because the system is in crisis.

Dispatches’ analysis also shows Britain’s benefits hotspots also include Blackpool, Birkenhead, the north of Drumchapel in Glasgow and the Scottish city’s Central Easterhouse area.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said on Thursday, November 26 that 2.8 million people are out of work because of long-term sickness.

She told the House of Commons the benefits bill for sickness and disability is expected to rise by £26bn by the end of the current parliament.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts overall spending on sickness and disability benefits will hit £100bn per year by 2030 on current trends.

Twenty places in England with the highest joblessness figures will get more NHS staff to cut waiting lists under Ms Kendall’s plan to “get Britain working again”. She also told the Commons: “Under this Labour government, if you can work, you must work.”

However, the Work and Pensions Secretary told Parliament she won’t present plans for an overhaul of the welfare system until spring, which would suggest changes won’t be introduced until at least 2026.

But opposition MPs have warned the Labour Government’s raising of employers’ National Insurance Contributions acts against plans to get more people into work.

Richard Holden, Shadow Paymaster General, told the Commons businesses in his Basildon and Billericay constituency are “absolutely terrified by both the taxes coming through national insurance and the hit on them through business rates as well”.

He added: “With the OBR saying there’s going to be at least 50,000 jobs a year going because of those changes, where are the people that she’s hoping to get off benefits and into work, going to find employment?”

Britain’s Benefits Scandal airs on Channel 4 at 8pm on Monday.