BIRMINGHAM is home to half of the country's most benefits-dependent areas, official data revealed today.
Stats from the House of Commons show the city has five of the 10 districts with the highest proportion of jobless benefits claimants.
As many as one in nine working-age people in some areas of Birmingham are drawing handouts while looking for work.
The national league table was topped by Birmingham Ladywood – where TV hit Benefits Street was filmed.
Hodge Hill, Erdington, Perry Barr and Hall Green also appear high up the statistics published by the Commons Library.
Two areas of the North-East, Hartlepool and Newcastle Central, are among the other major benefits hotspots.
The parts of the UK with the lowest proportion of the population dependent on jobless benefits are wealthy rural areas such as North-East Hampshire and Mid-Sussex.
Overall, the country's unemployment rate currently stands at 4 per cent.
But there are stark regional variations, with the proportion of people claiming ranging from 0.5 to 11.9 per cent across the UK.
Even within regions there are major inequalities – such as in London, where Croydon and Hounslow have high benefits rates while Richmond and Bromley are strikingly low in claimant numbers.
In Scotland, Glasgow is notably more affected by unemployment than Edinburgh, according to the data.
The stats combine Jobseeker's Allowance with those on the new Universal Credit system who are claiming while seeking employment.
They do not include other types of benefit such as those linked to illness or disability.
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Birmingham Ladywood became notorious after Benefits Street was aired in 2014.
The Channel 4 show focussed on a single street in the area which around 90 per cent of residents claimed some sort of handout.
It featured a number of colourful characters such as White Dee who boasted they hadn't worked for years.
The areas with the most jobless claimants… and where there are the least
1 Birmingham, Ladywood 11.9%
2 Birmingham, Hodge Hill 11.1%
3 Hartlepool 9.5%
4 Birmingham, Erdington 9.1%
5 Birmingham, Perry Barr 9.0%
6 Birmingham, Hall Green 8.8%
7 Newcastle upon Tyne Central 8.3%
8 Foyle 8.0%
9 Wolverhampton South East 7.8%
10 Bootle 7.6%
641 South Northamptonshire 0.7%
642 Woking 0.7%
643 Mole Valley 0.7%
644 Surrey Heath 0.7%
645 Buckingham 0.7%
646 South West Surrey 0.7%
647 Mid Sussex 0.7%
648 Westmorland and Lonsdale 0.6%
649 South Cambridgeshire 0.5%
650 North East Hampshire 0.5%
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