Plan B Forum

Britain’s worst benefits blackspot has been revealed – an area where just one person works for a living.

The rundown Cottsmeadow Estate in Washwood Heath, Birmingham tops a table of workshy communities. Official figures show that 99.1 per cent of working-age adults there live off state handouts.
Among 105 people who could hold jobs, forklift truck driver James Beards is believed to be the only resident who is in full-time employment.

‘I’d never dream of claiming benefits,’ he told the News of the World. ‘It annoys me that I work hard to make a living and other people can just live for free off the state.’

Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions reveal that among residents, 50 are listed as on the dole, 30 are signed off sick and get incapacity benefits, 20 pocket lone-parent payments and five claim other handouts. The Cottsmeadow Estate is one of five communities where more than 90 per cent of adults are on some form of benefits. The Egerton Street area of Oldham, where 110 out of 113 (or 97.3 per cent) of residents claim state benefits, was second on the list. Sandhills in Liverpool was third, with a 95.5 per cent jobless tally.

The Westport Road area of Burslem South in Stoke-on-Trent came next with 94.2 per cent of residents on benefits while Whalley Banks in Blackburn, scored 92.9 per cent and came fifth. The shock statistics are based on the number claiming benefits in the second quarter of 2010, and the latest population estimates for neighbourhoods of more than 100 people.


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Gob wrote:The Egerton Street area of Oldham, where 110 out of 113 (or 97.3 per cent) of residents claim state benefits, was second on the list.