Region tops league for benefits claims

Feb 15 2008 by William Green, The Journal

MINISTERS have been accused of failing the North East over returning unemployed people to work, with the region having the country’s highest proportion of benefit claimants.

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) statistics show 38,860 people under 25 claimed benefits in the region – from incapacity to jobseeker allowances – 12.1% of the area’s population.

There were 627,070 claimants nationally in this age range, 9% of the population, according to the latest figures from May 2007 obtained by North Tyneside MP Stephen Byers.

Regionally there were 47,730 claimants aged between 25 and 34, equal to 16% of the population, compared to the 11.5% national rate with 881,450 cases.

And more women of working age have claimed incapacity benefit (IB) in Newcastle since Labour came to power. Some 6,500 claimed support in May 1997 but this rose to 6,540 by May 2007.

The number of male claimants fell from 11,500 to 10,080 over the same period, according to another set of figures obtained by Newcastle Central MP Jim Cousins.

Nationally, 2.64 million people claim IB totalling more than £12bn a year compared to 700,000 people on the benefit in the 1980s.

Chris Grayling, Tory Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “In many parts of the North East and elsewhere in the country, benefit dependency remains endemic, and despite all the new jobs that have been created, the Government has quite simply failed to get people into work.”

Mr Grayling claimed 200,000 people on IB should not be, with more than one million able to return to work given correct support. “We need an end to the system where people can simply sit at home on benefits doing nothing at all, unless of course they have a genuine incapacity which means they cannot work,” added Mr Grayling.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance said little had changed despite Government rhetoric, with many people trapped on benefits apart from a “hard core” who made a deliberate choice.

MP Jim Cousins said IB claimants had changed from former heavy industry workers to people with mental and physical problems. “They can get jobs but it is extremely hard for them to keep them and employers are very wary,” he said.

Dermot Finch, who heads the Centre for Cities think-tank, said it was time for “real action”.

He warned the “difficult” issue of the impact of migrant labour and ensuring employers had the necessary skilled staff must be tackled.