The REAL sick list
We uncover the worst benefits scrounger blackspots in Britian
WELCOME to the sickest towns in Britain - where as many as ONE IN NINE people pocket over £80 a week "on the sick".
Using the latest official figures, the News of the World can now pinpoint the ten areas making the most incapacity benefit payouts.
Levels of sickie claims by those who don't work differ wildly across the country. But SEVEN Welsh towns feature in our Spongers Top Ten.
Our statistics will come as a shock to UK taxpayers-who are forking out £5.6 BILLION a year to those who claim that long-term disabilities have rendered them unfit to work.
A host of medical reasons are cited by the 2.4 million claimants, including "invisible" illnesses such as depression, alcoholism, stress and eating disorders.
More than HALF have been off work more than five years-a 20 per cent rise since 2002. We can reveal that over the last ten years:
CLAIMANTS are getting younger, with a 75 PER CENT rise in the under-25s.
BRITAIN has a higher proportion of long-term sick than ANY other country in western Europe.
MORE than half the claims are for illnesses difficult to disprove such as backache and stress, which have shot up by a massive 16 per cent.
THOSE who don't exit the incapacity system quickly often end up collecting cash for between EIGHT and TEN years.
Savings
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "A third of people on incapacity benefit could go back to work tomorrow, saving taxpayers more than two billion pounds.
"The only reason many are on this benefit is because the government wants to keep down the unemployment figures. This con must stop."
Top of our league of shame is the rundown ex-coal mining town of Merthyr Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan, where 11.3 per cent of working-age adults- nearly 4,000 people-have been claiming sick pay for more than a year.
It is closely followed by other industrial blackspots like Easington, County Durham, with 11.2 per cent, and Blaenau Gwent, 10.6 per cent.
But some towns, mainly in the wealthy south-east, seem much healthier. In Wokingham, Berkshire, only 0.98 per cent of adults-or ONE IN 107-claim incapacity benefit.
Critics say claimants are conveniently not included in the jobless figures and are likelier to die or reach retirement age than take a job.
The total incapacity bill rises to a cool £6.5billion a year with short-term payouts added on.
TOP 10 INCAPACITY BENEFIT BLACKSPOTS (percentage of working age people claiming)
1. Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan 11.32%
2. Easington, County Durham 11.22%
3. Blaneau Gwent, Monmouthshire 10.63%
4. Rhonnda Cynon Taff, Glamorgan 9.26%
5. Neath, Port Talbot 9.24%
6. Caerphilly, Mid Glamorgan 9.05%
7. Carmarthernshire, South Wales 7.63%
8. Bridgend, Glamorgan 7.62%
9. Sedgefield, County Durham 7.43%
10. Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria 7.31%
