EXCLUSIVE: Data suggests a large amount of people are on health-related benefits in the area.
Merthyr Tydfil in Wales has lots of people on benefits (Image: Tim Merry)
Locals have revealed what it is like in a UK town where a huge number of people are receiving sickness benefits. In the Welsh town of Merthyr Tydfil, 25 miles north of Cardiff, around 15% of 16 to 64-year-olds were in receipt of a health-related benefit before the pandemic. Now that figure is around 19% – about 4,750 people.
Merthyr was previously nicknamed the “sick note capital” of Britain, as data suggested that it is the town that pays the least tax in the UK. HMRC figures from 2020/21 revealed that the number of individuals paying tax in the area was 25,000.
Sukhdev Singh, 54, at Furniture Zone – a shop first opened by his father, Joe, who was originally from the Punjab – said there was a time when Merthyr was “thriving”.
The family moved from Dudley in the 1980s. “When I moved to Wales, the miners’ strike was on that year. The first thing I saw when I switched on Welsh TV was a miner fighting with a policeman. I thought, ‘Oh, bloody hell. These Welsh miners look tough.’”
Merthyr is a classic post-industrial town (Image: Tim Merry)
The area was once home to many providers of stable employment.
But production the Hoover Factory closed in 2009. Also gone are: Kasai UK, an automotive interior components plant; Triumph Furniture, a major supplier of office and commercial furniture; Sekisui Alveo, a Japanese-owned chemical plant and Thorn Lighting, where incandescent lamps where made.
Now Mr Singh has noticed there is an “older demographic”, people with walking sticks and motability vehicles.
He added: “I’d like to think that we have some hard working people like me here.
“I’m not claiming sick; honestly I’m not. I do walk with a limp, but I’m not claiming money for it. But you’ve given me an idea — I might fill out a form. There might be more money in it for me — a new car at least.”
But Mr Singh reiterated: “I like to think that there’s more people working than in the doctor’s surgery, or whatever.
“My father works six days a week. I’m sure with all the things wrong with him he could go on the sick. But he’s from a foundry background; he never sat down.”
Others mentioned deindustrialisation under Margaret Thatcher, a loss of EU funds and a change in attitude.
Liz Keohane, 77, worked at Hoovers. She said: “In the 50s and 60s, whatever you wanted, you had to work for.”
Liz and Philip say people used to have to work for what they wanted (Image: Tim Merry)
Her husband, Philip, 78, said: “A lot of these younger people are using mental health as an excuse. You can’t prove it or disprove it.”
Liz said Merthyr and surrounding towns are “going backwards instead of forwards” as “everything is closing down”. It was also suggested that the area has become a “dumping ground” for people genuinely too ill to work as housing is cheaper than in surrounding areas.
Rebecca Tonge, 40, a hospital secretary, put it bluntly, saying: “I’d be bored.”
Pam John, 73, sells Joe’s ice cream in the high street.
“I’ve not seen so many disabled people as in Merthyr in my life,” she said. “There’s so many with sticks and in wheelchairs, mobility scooters or with zimmers. I don’t know why.”
Colette Jones, 65, a cleaner said she is working even though she is “old and decrepid” and should be retired.
“There are generations of people on benefits, to be fair,” she said. “The thing is their parents never worked.
“Wages are low and a lot of people that work, some have to have some sort of universal credit. I’m sure I could be sick though.”
But she would not want to. Colette added: “There’s a lot to be said about being out and about and about meeting different people.”
An 82-year-old man, who wished to remain anonymous, used to employ workers in Merthyr.
He said the area has been getting bad publicity, but the people he used to lead were “ten times faster” and “more efficient” than people in London.
A man sat at an outside table at Wetherspoons, who did not wish to give his name, said: “There’s no work around here.”
He then mentioned new housing nearby, adding that the authorities should focus on jobs instead.
A woman sitting with him, who also wished to remain anonymous, said her 16-year-old son gets paid £20 a day to labour and heavy carry while he is in college.
Another man, who also did not want to provide his name, said that the town is “falling to pieces”.
Local Donald says Margaret Thatcher has a lot to answer for (Image: Tim Merry)
Another local, Donald, 65, who did not wish to give his second name, pointed towards the vacant HMRC tax office, which was closed years ago.
It stands as a metaphor for the town’s predicament. The resident thinks its problems stem from Margaret Thatcher’s premiership.
Donald said: “The breaking of trade unionism was a political ploy. It set people into a spiral of multigenerational economic inactivity and unemployment.
“I put it firmly at her feet. Multiple generations of families can’t or don’t want to find work.”
He added that the area has become a “dumping ground” for people genuinely too ill to work as housing is cheaper than in surrounding areas.
Perhaps a change in attitude has something to do with the figures also.
Liz Keohane, 77, worked at Hoovers.
She said: “In the 50s and 60s, whatever you wanted, you had to work for.”
Margaret Price, who was only prepared to say she is in her 70s, a retired social worker, said the town has high levels of social deprivation, which she believes has been exacerbated by the loss of EU funding, but the council is “doing its best”.
She has noticed some improvements recently as regards Merthyr’s infrastructure and the way it looks — there are more restaurants and cafes and things that mean “new life is being put into the town”.
Maybe some green shoots, then.