A damning new report describes Luton as a “benefits ghetto”, with the fourth highest spend per person on welfare in England and Wales.
In Luton, an average of £5,292.80 per head is spent on welfare, according to The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ)report released on Monday.
Only Sefton in Merseyside, the London borough of Barking & Dagenham, and Blackburn with Darwin in Lancashire, had more costs per head than Luton.
CSJ managing director Christian Guy said: “People in these neighbourhoods have been consistently written off as incapable and their poverty plight inevitable. Their lives have been limited by a fatalistic assumption they have little prospect of anything better.”
The report also found that nearly one fifth of UK children are growing up in a workless household, and when asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, some said they wanted to be “famous” or the “boss of a gang”.
In Luton, Biscot and Northwell wards had the highest number of out of work benefits claimants in April 2013 – an estimated 6.5 per cent of the working-age population (16-64). In 2012, Dallow ward had the highest number of claimants at 7.3 per cent, but this has dropped to 6.3 per cent this year.
Overall, Luton has an above average percentage of working-age people claiming benefits; 4.5 per cent compared to the England average of 3.7 per cent.
A Luton Borough Council spokesman said: “We provide a number of initiatives aimed at supporting getting people into work including assisting young people with career choices, improving skills levels through activity within community centres, adult learning and our European Social Fund programme, supporting a volunteer programme which helps people move into work, providing space for Job Centre Plus to work and supporting access to welfare advice and guidance.”
Out-of-work benefits are managed by the Department for Work and Pensions, but the council is responsible for administering housing and council tax benefits.
The spokesman said: “We are unclear regarding what the calculations quoted have been based on.
“The NOMIS official labour market statistics show the level of out-of-work benefits to be consistent at 14 per cent for a number of years. Of the 5,900 job seekers allowance claimants in Luton, only 1,600 have been unemployed for over six months.”