There is fury on a seaside road, where jobless neighbours reportedly rake in double the cash of hard workers.
People who don’t work on a seaside road have sparked anger (Image: Google)
Hard-working Britons on one of the country’s most welfare-dependent roads have blasted the system after revealing jobless neighbours are taking home up to twice as much cash as those in employment. Residents on Cheltenham Road in Blackpool say the community has turned into a real-life version of “Benefits Street”, with official figures showing that up to 90% of working-age adults in parts of the town claim out-of-work benefits. Samantha Wilkins, a 30-year-old mother-of-one, works as a housekeeper at a holiday apartment in nearby Lytham St Annes. Despite holding down a job, she earns just £1,000 a month and is forced to spend £82 on a bus pass to get to and from work.
Once household bills are covered, Ms Wilkins is left with a meagre £20 of her wages at the end of the month. Meanwhile, she watches non-working neighbours pull in up to £2,000 every single month from state payouts. Samantha, whose husband is a soldier based in Aldershot, admitted she is increasingly left questioning why she bothers working.
“I went back to work in July this year and I’m proud to have a job, but sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it, given all the juggling I must do,” she told the Sun. She added that someone else on the road gets £2,000 a month from the state and has “never worked”.
Ms Wilkins added: “Most of the people living on this street are out of work. Unfortunately, we live in a country where, too often, having a job doesn’t pay.” She feels stuck in a “work trap”, struggling all her life living “pay cheque to pay cheque”.
A damning report by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), based on DWP data, reveals that Cheltenham Road is one of 10 welfare hotspots across Blackpool where between 76% and 90% of adults rely on out-of-work benefits. Across the wider resort, there are 77 separate areas where more than half of the working-age population claims state support.
The stark divide has sparked outrage among local taxpayers and pensioners who feel abandoned by the state. Samantha Wilkins’s mother, RAF veteran Tracey Jarvis, 62, was forced to retire early due to severe arthritis and now scrapes by on a sub-£300 monthly military pension.
Meanwhile, RAF veteran Tracey Jarvis, 62, scrapes by on a £300 pension after being denied Universal Credit (Image: Getty)
Having worked since 16, she was refused Universal Credit because of her family’s combined income, leading her to accuse ministers of funding only “those that don’t want to work”. Local businesses are also feeling the pinch.
At the end of the road, the Corner House landlady Julie Thomas, 55, claimed a post-pandemic dependency culture has made recruiting staff impossible, warning her venue now feels “more like a charity than a business” and admitting she plans to retire abroad as soon as possible.