Birmingham revealed to be benefits capital of the UK with 10% of residents in part of city on welfare

BIRMINGHAM has been revealed to be the benefits capital of the UK with 10% of residents in one part claiming welfare.

In a league table of constituencies with the highest proportion of claimants – four areas in the city are in the top 10.

The place with the highest proportion of people on benefits is Birmingham Ladywood, with 10.3%.

The Labour-held constituency also has the highest overall number of claimants – 6,125 according the figures from the Office for national Statistics.

Analysis by the revealed the second-highest rate is nearby Birmingham Hodge Hill, at 8.9%.

The city’s Erdington and Hall Green areas are also in the top 10, along with Leeds Central, Corydon North, Middlesbrough, and Bermondsey and old Southwark.

There are also three constituencies in Northern Ireland in the top 10; Foyle, Belfast West and Belfast North.

Birmingham has become notorious for the levels of deprivation in some of its inner city areas, which were documented in the Channel 4 show Benefits Street.

It followed a year in the life of the residents of James Turner Street, who were said to have a 90% welfare claiming level, and sparked a nationwide debate on benefits.

The constituencies with the lowest rate of welfare claimants are South Cambridgeshire, Henley in Oxfordshire and York Outer, with just 0.6%.

David Cameron’s former seat of Witney in Oxfordshire has a benefits rate of just 0.7%, which is in the bottom 10 along with North East Hampshire, Mid Sussex, Kenilworth and Southam, and South East Cambridgeshire.

Across the country the overall benefits claimant rate is 2.6%.

The figures were released the same day the ONS showed the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in a decade as a record number of job vacancies are on offer.