With its bootcamp fitness classes, basketball court, football pitches and well-used running track, Victoria Park in Plymouth is an unlikely home to Britain’s highest level of disability benefits claimants.
But shocking new analysis has found one in three of the area’s working-age residents receives Personal Independence Payments, designed to support those with long term health conditions or disabilities.
MailOnline has scrutinised data from the Department of Work and Pensions that shows almost 33 per cent (1,336) of its 3,940 residents in this bracket are on the handout.
The park itself is a popular area for young families with well-maintained and recently refurbished Victorian terraced homes, neighbourhood watch signs and thriving independent cafes and restaurants nearby.
But just a few streets away MailOnline found addicts and alcoholics – and residents who say they are sick of seeing their taxes abused.
The council ‘ward’ known as St. Peter and the Waterfront is the most deprived area of the Devon coastal city and is ranked in the top 1% of most disadvantaged districts in England.
According to the city’s Labour-run council, residents have a life expectancy of 77 years, roughly 7.5 years less than the city’s least deprived area.
It also has high rates of smoking, childhood obesity and emergency hospital admissions.
James Walker is a local resident who suffers from a catalogue of health issues and receives benefits including PIP
An area around Victoria Park in Plymouth, Devon has been exposed as having the largest number of PIP (Personal Independence Payment) claimants in the UK
Local resident Mary Leigh, 56, who started receiving PIP earlier this year after a heart attack stopped her working as a taxi driver said she sees high levels of benefits abuse in the area.
She said: ‘It doesn’t surprise me at all that this is the highest area in the country for claimants – I am sure a lot of people around here are claiming but don’t need it.
‘There are a lot of drug and alcohol problems in this area and you see all the users sitting about all day spending their benefits.
‘They are proud of not having to work – like the rest of us are suckers.
‘Unfortunately some of the people that really need benefits are going to suffer.
‘I have just started receiving PIP myself having paid taxes all my life, after my heart attack I used all my savings in a year trying to get back to health and I’m hoping to one day go back to work.
‘I think particularly young people need to be given more incentive to work, there’s enough jobs that need doing, look at the state of the parks or the street. I’d like to see them get out and pick litter to earn their doll money.’
Antique dealer Simon Platt, 37, who has run a shop near Victoria Park for four years, said: ‘I hate to say it but I think a lot of the problem is wokeism.
‘Older people might’ve had a lot of mental health issues but they just got on with it.
‘People are very quick to sign on and it seems to be quite easy. I used to be pro-Labour but they’re not for the working people any more.
‘Instead of giving people money they should bring in some form of support to help people into work. I’d like to see the money spent from the cuts on more apprenticeships and more jobs.’
Cafe worker Ollie Mason, 30, said: ‘You walk around the streets in the morning and people are walking like zombies because they are on something.
‘There are a lot of drugs in the area and a lot of businesses around here are getting robbed constantly.
‘There are always people getting mugged in the park.’
Antique dealer Simon Platt, 37, who has run a shop near Victoria Park for four years, said: ‘I hate to say it but I think a lot of the problem is wokeism’
The area is a mix of smart, well-kept residential dwellings surrounded by a proliferation of terraced streets, many in a poor state of repair with rubbish, drink and drugs a problem in the area
As well as Plymouth being the capital for PIP payments, neighbourhoods within Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Stockton-on-Tees have similarly high rates.
Critics of Labour‘s ballooning £143billion welfare bill said the figures should act as a ‘wake up call’ for the Government.
The analysis comes after Keir Starmer completed a humiliating backtrack on his flagship welfare reforms package at the eleventh hour, following sustained pressure from over 120 MPs.
The initial package of reforms was mooted to save around £5billion by the end of the Parliament and included a restriction on the eligibility for PIP.
Existing claimants were to be given a 13-week phase-out period of financial support in an earlier move that was seen as a bid to head off opposition by aiming to soften the impact of the changes.
It’s understood now that around 370,000 existing PIP claimants will be able to keep their payments.
But the change on PIP is estimated to wipe up to £2billion off the £5billion savings by the end of the Parliament, and Universal Credit tweaks another £1billion.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is odds-on to hike taxes to pay for the financial shortfall, experts have said.
If the legislation clears its first hurdle on Tuesday, it will then face a few hours’ examination by all MPs the following week – rather than days or weeks in front of a committee tasked with looking at the Bill.
PIP can be paid even to people who are working, have savings or are getting most other benefits.
It is not means tested, tax-free and currently doled out to around 3.6million people across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Labour Government is working on a plan to tighten eligibility for the payments
The Labour Government is working on a plan to tighten eligibility for the payments.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall confirmed earlier this month that the government will overhaul the points system so a claimant must score 4 points in a single activity such as washing or dressing rather than eight points in total.
People with less severe conditions will also need to be re-assessed more often.
The proposals could see 800,000 people losing access to PIP.
But there is strong resistance from MPs are trying to block the bill as well as mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who claims it would ‘destroy the financial safety net’ for millions of people.
Local resident James Walker, 52, told MailOnline he hasn’t been able to work since he was 18 and currently receives £733 per month higher rate PIP due to his epilepsy, depression, anxiety, agoraphobia and COPD in addition to his £366 universal credit.
He said: ‘I think the cuts are outrageous, that would really affect me in a lot of ways.
‘I struggle to get by even on the higher rate of PIP so my quality of life would take a massive fall if they took that away.
‘It’s not enough money to live on once I have paid my £63 rent, electric, gas, council tax and water
‘Labour is supposed to look after vulnerable people but Starmer is just a Conservative in a red tie.
‘I know there are a lot of people exploiting PIP and I would like them to make it tougher for those people but not people who genuinely need it.’
Unemployed former florist Julie Glanville, 52, said she doesn’t claim PIP but believes there are numerous fraudulent claims made.
Minicab driver Chris Kawka said: ‘It’s definitely not the best area to live in and there are always a lot of people hanging out in the park during the day’
According to Plymouth City Council figures over 57,000 residents in the city meet the Equality Act definition of having a disability
He said: ‘They need to weed out the ones taking advantage who don’t want to work.
‘It makes it harder for the people who genuinely need help.
‘There are a lot of people in this area struggling and that need help but don’t get it and a lot that don’t need it.
‘The whole system seems back to front sometimes.’
According to Plymouth City Council figures over 57,000 residents in the city meet the Equality Act definition of having a disability.
With about 12% of residents having their day-to-day activities limited a little, and 9% have them limited a lot.
According to the ONS the total number of benefit claimants rose to 5,985 in March 2024, up from 5,500 in March 2023.
Minicab driver Chris Kawka said: ‘It’s definitely not the best area to live in and there are always a lot of people hanging out in the park during the day.
‘I don’t know whether they really deserve that money or need it.
‘People speak about this in my taxi all the time that you can get given more for not working than for working.
‘I would like to see the government spend that money on programmes to get people back on their feet and back into work.’
Meanwhile Byker East in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a universal credit hotspot, has the second highest rate of PIP claimants – 1,453 out of 4,278, almost 32 per cent.
The Central Stockton & Portrack region of Stockton-on-Tees came in third at 30.5 per cent, or 1,323 out of 4,340.
These are the only three areas where the PIP rate among working-aged people is over 30 per cent.
However in 58 areas across England, the rate is more than one in five.
Fifty four of these are across the North East, West and Yorkshire and the Humber, and four – Weston Bournville in Somerset, Augusta Park in Test Valley, Hartcliffe in Bristol and number one-ranked Victoria Park – spread across the South.
