IT was the shocking documentary that introduced Brits to the “closest thing this country has to a shanty town".
Now, 10 years on, residents of much-maligned Jaywick have slammed Channel 5 series Benefits By The Sea for stitching them up and “almost destroying” their seaside home.
The north Essex village has acquired a notorious reputation over the years - once branded the most deprived place in Britain, a ghetto where half of adults are out of work and the average income is just £360 a week.
And walking around the seaside enclave, which lies two miles down the coast from Clacton-on-Sea, it is clearly still blighted by many of the issues that gave it such a bad reputation a decade ago.
Letters are missing from the signage sitting atop some of the more dilapidated businesses down the coastline, and we noticed feral youths riding around on bikes during school hours, the whiff of marijuana hanging in the air after they passed.
Nonetheless, with recently-elected local MP Nigel Farage promising to put the area “on the map” and a £126million transformation plan in the pipeline, locals feel their luck is finally on the turn.
That is despite the grievances that linger a decade on about documentary producers focusing on jobless junkies and alcoholics living in the once-thriving seaside resort.
Julie Coleman, 68, runs Julie’s Alterations clothing service in the Brooklands area, where many of the programme’s most disturbing scenes were filmed.
She said: “I think the show almost destroyed Jaywick. A lot of it was so untrue.
“If they do another documentary, they should go to ordinary people instead of targeting certain individuals around here. It put us down.
“A lot of people that come here to visit still bring it up, about it being Benefits By The Sea.
“We still have tourists coming to Jaywick, because there are things that bring them here.
“But it made us all seem like drunks and druggies and not everybody is like that.”
In 2015, half of Jaywick’s 4,665 population was unemployed – five times the national average.
It was officially the most deprived place in Britain, according to the indices of deprivation based on factors like poverty, crime, education and skill levels, unemployment and housing.
The average weekly income was just £360.
Since then, £5.3million has been invested to create the Sunspot building in Brooklands, which features a number of popular cafes along with a mobility scooter shop.
And in September, Tendring District Council announced an ambitious £126million 20-year plan to transform Jaywick Sands Place.
But despite the best efforts of community leaders and residents, problems remain.
Last year, two XL Bully dogs mauled a Jaywick grandmother to death in a vicious attack that sickened the nation.
Esther Martin, 68, was babysitting her grandson when the hounds - who belonged to her wannabe rapper son-in-law Ashley Warren - turned on her as she tried to shoo their six puppies with a broom.
Meanwhile, over the summer families were forced into temporary accommodation after a suspected arson attack ravaged 10 properties in the area.
Aaron Taylor, 32, opened the local Sun Spa tanning salon in May 2024, but he worries that not enough is being done to stop the village going to the dogs.
He said: "It's still a deprived area. I see people picking up cigarette butts from the floor and you can smell cannabis in the air when you pass certain groups of people.
“It seems there are still a lot of people out of work here.
“There's not much activity in the morning in Jaywick, put it that way. We don't see a soul before 11am.
“I don't think there's enough job opportunities for young people here.
“There's good and bad everywhere but unfortunately we have more than our fair share of people who are just a nuisance, spraying graffiti and smashing up things.
“I opened my business because I thought there was a gap in the market for a good tanning salon, but it's been up and down to be honest. It's sad to say it, but Jaywick feels a bit left behind."
Julie, who wasn’t living in the area when Benefits By The Sea aired, has a more hopeful vision for the future.
She adds: “We’ve been here 10 years and we love it. The community is brilliant.
“We have food banks and clothes banks and all sorts of functions throughout the year. We’ve had no problems whatsoever.”
Builder and plumber Danny Sloggett appeared in all 13 episodes of Benefits by the Sea, which first aired in July 2015.
He said: “I think the show was good and bad for Jaywick. It showed that we’re all on benefits even though we’re not.
“I work and have paid taxes all my life and so do many of my friends.
“They should have come to see the people that work and own their own houses and businesses and it’s sad they didn’t do that.
“There’s a big stigma about Jaywick. I used to get called ‘Jaywick Scum’ when I was at secondary school and young people tell me that still happens today.
“The biggest thing that went wrong was when the Butlin’s holiday camp half a mile away closed down in the mid-1980s.
“That was the nail in our coffin as we lost one million tourists a year.
“That really affected us because families used to go on holiday to Butlin’s then rent chalets in Jaywick and that provided a lot of work.
“There were nightclubs and dance halls here and there were amusement arcades and lots of pubs.
“But when Butlin’s shut, all that went and it’s been really hard for Jaywick as a community to shine on when the main income is taken away.”
Danny only agreed to go on the second series of the Channel 5 documentary after producers agreed to help him open a community group.
Social services were called to my house afterwards. They made it seem like because I was on benefits, I was the biggest scum in the world
Claire Fitzpatrick
His Jaywick Sands Happy Club now meets every Thursday.
He said: “I’m very proud of that because we discuss all the problems that need fixing, like the potholes and the fact there are no streetlights and people don’t feel safe walking around.
“There is a lot of fly tipping going on, people just dump their rubbish on the seawall, which is not a good advertisement for a holiday resort.
“I think Jaywick has got a lot better in the past 10 years.
“I want to show the whole world that Jaywick is not scum – we have a Caribbean beach and this is the Costa-del-Jaywick and it’s so beautiful.
“I think it’s the Monte Carlo of England. We should build a nice marina here - the Beckhams would love it.
“But there are still potholes in Brooklands and the bus service won’t go there.
“We need to give more opportunities to young people and believe in them.
“I went to prison eight times because my mum died and I felt the world was against me, so by the time I got to 18, I was in prison.
“Then I went to work for my dad as a builder and that changed my life – and that’s why I want to help young people.
“I feel people look down on Jaywick, but we need to end the stigma.”
A house in the area can still be snapped up for as little as £50,000 and the village's caravan and camping sites remain popular.
Yet the neat row of bungalows lining the still-magnificent beach are a reminder of Jaywick's fall from grace, blighted as they are by a burned-out building and a few front gardens filled with junk.
Mum-of-five Claire Fitzpatrick, 39, also featured on the reality show and is upset at how she was portrayed.
While picking up pastries at the Rainy Bakes store, she said: “They made me look like a right a**ehole.
“They made us sign stuff, didn’t send us a copy before they edited it and then they put it out.
“Social services were called to my house afterwards. I had three kids back then.
I used to get called ‘Jaywick Scum’ when I was at secondary school and young people tell me that still happens today
Danny Sloggett
“They said I earned up to £29,000 a year in benefits. I was like, what?
“They made it seem like because I was on benefits, I was the biggest scum in the world.
“The only reason I did the show was because I had just moved to London and I wanted to help. I’m too kind.
“People come here and look at Jaywick like it’s a s***hole, but it’s not.
“When my house burned down recently, the community came together within hours of it happening and I think this is a great place to live.
“Yes we have crime – and there have been a lot of break-ins at the campsite recently – but you have crime everywhere.”
Independent councillor Dan Casey believes Benefits by the Sea was a wake-up call for political leaders.
And he has been heartened by the fact that Jaywick, which is part of the constituency that elected Reform leader Farage to Parliament last year, is no longer the most deprived place in Britain.
He said: “I think the show was an awakening for Jaywick. It made people think and things happened.
“We got the roads done after that. We’ve had more housing and the marvellous Sunspot built.
“People still run us down and I don’t know why.
“At the end of the day, we are not at the bottom now. We are about 15th, so we’ve come up a little bit and we must be doing something right.
“We’ve got high unemployment down here and a lot of retired people and people with medical issues. Unemployment is just over 50 per cent now.
“The main thing is the lack of investment, but we’ve had quite a bit of investment down here now. I always say, see it as it is, not as how it was.”
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