Unemployed benefits claimants outnumber actual workers in thousands of British neighbourhoods, analysis shows.
asserted
analysis → outnumber → neighbourhoods
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has identified 3,000 'welfare hotspots' across England and Wales, where at least half of working-age people are claiming out-of-work benefits.
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half → identify → benefits
More than 150 neighbourhoods even had rates that exceeded 80 per cent.
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that → have → cent
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the figures show unemployment has 'gradually become accepted as a fact of life since the pandemic'.
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unemployment → say → pandemic
Sir Iain said: 'Britain is now living with levels of worklessness that would once have been treated as a national emergency.
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that → say → emergency
Yet because much of that worklessness is recorded as incapacity rather than conventional unemployment, it has gradually become accepted as a fact of life since the pandemic.
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it → record → pandemic
Lives are being ruined and yet this issue hides in plain sight.
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issue → ruin → sight
The reforms I introduced, including Universal Credit, helped drive worklessness to record lows before the pandemic.
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I → introduce → pandemic
With political courage and determination, it can be done again.
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it → do → courage
'Leaving millions of people in left-behind areas without the purpose, security and dignity that come with employment is neither compassionate nor sustainable.
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that → leave → employment
This report proves beyond doubt that it is time for the next generation of welfare reform.'
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it → prove → reform
Birmingham topped the list of local authorities with neighbourhoods where out-of-work claimant numbers exceed half the estimated working-age population, with a tally of 166.
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numbers → top → 166
Second on the CSJ's list was Liverpool (112) followed by Sheffield (82) and Bradford (81).
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. → follow → Sheffield
However, areas containing the highest share of the neighbourhoods – typically home to around 250 people – were Blackpool, Hartlepool and Redcar and Cleveland at 15, 12 and 8 per cent, respectively.
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areas → contain → 15
The findings were published in State of Dependency, a 250-page report and part of a new inquiry into welfare.
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findings → publish → welfare
In total, around 22 per cent of neighbourhoods in Liverpool and 18 per cent in Birmingham have out-of-work claimant numbers equivalent to at least 40 per cent of the working-age population – compared to just 2 per cent in London.
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cent → have → London
Since 2019, the number of working-age benefit claimants facing no requirement to seek or prepare for employment has increased by almost 1.7million.
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number → work → 1.7million
The incapacity benefit caseload has risen by 6161 per cent – making Britain an international outlier – while the prevalence of disability among the working-age population increased by 16 per cent.
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prevalence → rise → cent
The report found worklessness today increasingly appears as 'incapacity' rather than unemployment, with mental health being a key driver – as 3.2million more working-age people now report a mental health difficulty than in 2012.
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people → find → 2012
A participant at an event run by the CSJ claimed they had a 'spreadsheet of every single young person and where they lived', adding they had noticed 'they all lived within particular areas of the city - within five or ten streets of each other'.
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they → run → other
The report warned generations can grow up in 'welfare hotspots' surrounded by fewer working adults and with weaker everyday connections to employment.
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generations → warn → employment
Earlier this month it was revealed almost two million foreign nationals now receive benefits or the state pension in Britain.
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nationals → reveal → Britain
Separate analysis by the CSJ found 1.3million people who are not British citizens receive Universal Credit, including 745,000 Europeans who stayed after Brexit.
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who → find → Brexit
And disability claims are said to have risen more quickly in recent years than in the aftermath of WWI.
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claims → say → WWI
A study found 8million more working-age people were classified as disabled – under a definition that includes those with mental health conditions – between 2019-20 and 2024-25.
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that → find → 2019
By contrast, 1.6m servicemen had by March 1923 established claims for disability after being injured on duty in the Great War.
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servicemen → establish → War
Responding to the most recent CSJ report, the Department for Work and Pensions told the Daily Mail: 'These statistics show that for far too many years, worklessness has been entrenched in many communities and ill-health increasingly used as a reason to be left behind, resulting in the broken welfare system we inherited.
'
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we → respond → system
We are already reforming the welfare system across the country by narrowing the gap between Universal Credit standard and health rates, restoring face-to-face assessments, and investing £3.5billion in employment support to end the culture of people being signed off and written off.
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people → reform → culture
We're putting work and opportunity at the heart of the system, and the final recommendations from the Timms and Milburn Reviews will lay the foundation for sustainable reform.'
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recommendations → put → reform
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