Nation’s biggest benefits blackspot revealed – with more than half receiving handouts

THE nation’s biggest benefits blackspot, where more than half get handouts, can today be revealed to be in Grimsby.

Fifty three per cent of working age adults who live in the East Marsh area of the port town pocket some sort of benefit every week.

And just over a third are claiming sickness benefits.

But the deprived neighbourhood in the north of the Lincolnshire town — which used to be home to the workforce for the once thriving fishing docks — is not alone.

Central Blackpool has 51 per cent on benefits, while the South Promenade district of the faded resort has 48 per cent.

A similar picture was found in the Easterhouse suburb of Glasgow, where 44 per cent are on out-of-work handouts.

The Birkenhead area of Merseyside has a 47 per cent jobless tally.

More than half of the top 20 blackspots are in the North — with five in Blackpool alone.

The official figures were uncovered by Channel 4’s Dispatches and journalist Fraser Nelson.

Britain’s Benefits Scandal is on at 8pm tomorrow.

It will reveal a system in crisis and will “tell the story from the perspective of those trapped in a system designed to help them”.