A once proud town in the Welsh valleys has been damned by a new statistic – it has the highest rate of people in the UK claiming sickness benefits for anxiety.
With its tree-lined high street, rich history and the Brecon Beacons National Park just a short hike away, Rhymney should be a great place to live.
But even those born and bred in the town say it’s drab and depressing and they’re not surprised they are at the top of the anxiety sick note list.
One-in-30 people in Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney say they are suffering from anxiety to get benefits – a total of 2,289 claimants in total.
It’s 40 years since the Miners’ Strike but Margaret Thatcher still gets blamed for closing the pits and destroying the spirit that once glued this community together.
Many young people in the town have never had a job because they grew up without ever seeing their parents head off to work every morning.
Former Labour councillor Richard Pugh, 46, who works for MacMillan Cancer Support, said: ‘It’s a generational thing, parents are unemployed and their kids end up the same.
‘The closure of the pits was 40 years ago but we have never recovered, we have never replaced that industry.
‘All the health issues, including mental health and depression have stemmed from that.
A young person does a wheelie as he rides an electric motorcycle through the High Street, Rhymney, Wales
Those born and bred in the town say it’s drab and depressing and they’re not surprised they are at the top of the anxiety sick note list
Many young people in the town have never had a job because they grew up without ever seeing their parents head off to work every morning.
Former Labour councillor Richard Pugh, 46, who works for MacMillan Cancer Support in the town, said the problem facing it was a ‘generational’ one
‘I’m not surprised about people claiming for anxiety here, sadly we’re top of all the leagues you don’t want to be top of.’
But there’s a feeling in the town that some benefits claimants are malingering and claiming anxiety because the condition is hard to prove or disprove.
Retired transport engineer Alan Davies, 61, said: ‘It’s not like you have a spinal problem or mobility issues – anyone can say they’ve got anxiety.
‘Some cases are genuine but there’s a lot that aren’t and the country can’t afford to pay people benefits they don’t deserve.
‘There’s nothing about Rhymney that would cause anyone anxiety, it’s not a bad town. But people need jobs to feel valued and good about themselves.’
Paul Thomas, 66, manager of the Helping Hands charity chop in the town said the community was ‘stagnant’. ‘A lot of people here have a lot of knowledge about the benefits system,’ he added.
‘You are not going to go out to work for a basic wage when you can get just as much money for not working.
‘But there’s nothing here, the pits went, we had a brewery employing a thousand men, a factory making military equipment, a hydraulic machinery factory, all gone.
Paul Thomas, 66, manager of the Helping Hands charity chop in the town said the town was ‘stagnant’
Pictured (left to right) Lash technician Rhianwen Murray, 24 and hairdresser Lois Jones, 16, both working for Lashcraft by Cloe
A small flock of sheep are seen grazing in the town, with the streets almost devoid of any human life
Store after store appeared to be closed when MailOnline visited the community this week
‘The town is stagnant, a lot of the South Wales valleys towns are in a similar situation. There’s not a lot here for youngsters, we have a drug problem, anti-social behaviour and people don’t have a lot of hope.’
An ex-miner, 75, who didn’t want to be named, said: ‘After the pits closed the area has just gone downhill, it’s got rougher and rougher.
‘They promised us well paid jobs when coal mining finished but it never happened.
‘The community spirit has gone and they are placing people here, anti-social people with problems. It’s become a dumping ground for all sorts.
‘I can remember times when you would see someone in the street and you would know their parents and their grandparents.
‘You could leave your doors open night and day, all that has gone now.’
Charity shop volunteer Pauline Bowman, 75, said: ‘You see the kids going up and down the street on electric bikes and that’s enough to put your blood pressure up.
Charity shop volunteer Pauline Bowman said bored youths would tear through the streets causing a nuisance of themselves
The town’s streets are rundown, with many stores reportedly having been closed for years
A higher proportion than anywhere else in the country, one in thirty people is claiming benefits for anxiety in Rhymney, Wales. Pictured is the town’s police station
Many still blame the impact Margatet Thatcher had on the town’s proud mining community decades ago for its decline. Pictured is a mural where Rhymney’s mining heritage is honoured
‘I’ve only lived here for a year but there’s nothing to be anxious about although there aren’t many opportunities for younger people.
‘The Government in London doesn’t know where Wales is, never mind Rhymney.’
The town’s branch of Lloyds Bank has shut and is being turned into flats, shops have been boarded up or turned into takeaways and there is the inevitable Turkish barber, waiting for customers.
The only two customers in the bar of the Royal Arms Hotel at lunchtime were discussing the town’s new label as the anxiety capital of the UK. A man, sipping a half of lager, told Mail Online: ‘I’ve got anxiety myself but figures like this don’t help us, they damage Rhymney’s reputation.’
Retired English teacher Sam Hickman, 77, said: ‘It’s a very deprived area, it doesn’t surprise me. If you walk down the high street you get a sense of a lack of anything going on. There’s nothing happening here, it’s a bit dead.
One in 30 people in Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney say they are suffering from anxiety to get benefits – a total of 2,289 claimants in total
Pictured: Local resident Sam Hickman, 77, as he walked through the town
VE Day decorations at the war memorial on Victoria Road, Rhymney, when MailOnline visited
The town’s main High Street appeared almost empty. The town’s branch of Lloyds Bank has shut and is being turned into flats, shops have been boarded up or turned into takeaways and there is the inevitable Turkish barber, waiting for customers
‘There’s hardly any work for young people, there’s no entertainment, they just sit outside the chip shop all day.’
Two of the women in Cloe’s beauty parlour on the high street said they had been diagnosed with anxiety but had never claimed benefits for it.
Eyelash technician Rhianwen Murray, 24, said: ‘I think a lot of people here are playing on the anxiety thing. A lot of it is put on, you can’t tell if someone genuinely has it.
‘I have it at times but working helps me, keeping busy and meeting people.
‘But there’s a lot of people not working in Rhymney but you see them out drinking in the daytime. If they really had anxiety I don’t think they’d be doing that.’
Cheerful and smiling chip shop owner Helen Jones, 51, also believes that working can be an antidote to anxiety and depression.
She said: ‘I’ve been running the chippie for 27 years now, I haven’t got time to suffer from anxiety. I’m too busy.’
The Government is seeking to slash Britain’s stratospheric welfare spending, with the benefits bill for working age people having skyrocketed to nearly £118billion a year.
Cheerful and smiling chip shop owner Helen Jones, 51, also believes that working can be an antidote to anxiety and depression
Pictured is Rhymney’s social club, which was marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day
The colossal amount represents a real-terms increase of 46 per cent over the last five years alone.
Liz Kendal, work and pensions secretary, is looking to slash the expenditure by honing in on the Personal Independence Payment – or PIP – which she fears has been awarded to people too easily.
The benefit is given to those aged 16 and over with long-term health conditions or disabilities, and is intended to assist people who experience difficulties with daily living or mobility with their costs.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Government is determined to find £5billion worth of savings. However, in truth there is no quick fix to the problem.
Simply removing people’s access to PIP will not solve the plethora of woes facing those who live in the constituency of Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney.
In the town’s deserted high street, the only real clientele appear to be the flock of sheep who – seemingly so unaccustomed to seeing people out and about – graze freely on grass verges, unabashed.
Some behind closed doors, some locals plead for the community to rally, to work, to volunteer – to do anything but sit inside, rotting.
But the malaise within Rhymney runs so deeply, that even this modest ambition seems almost impossible.
The Government’s Get Britain Working white paper, revealed last year, aims to address this, to a degree.
With a £240million package of personalised services for jobseekers and souped-up job centres – as well as planned improvements to the NHS – it’s hoped this will give people the kick-start needed to get into work.
But for isolated communities like Rhymney, where the ‘stagnation’ has lasted for decades, only time will tell to see if these plans will work – or if the town continues down its path of steady, depressing decline.
