Rochdale is the UK's worst benefit spot

Rochdale in the News of the World

As many as three in every four people of working age survive on Government handouts - 76 per cent of working-age people are on benefits in one area of the borough.

According to the News of the World, an analysis of every street in England and Wales has pinpointed the borough as the worst area for benefit claimants.

Rochdale beat Liverpool into second place, Blackburn was third and Salford came in sixth.

The News of the World report says: "A staggering 850 of the 1,114 adults in the Baillie Street district get benefits - a 35 per cent rise since 2001. Of these 450 are 'on the sick', claiming incapacity benefit.

"The Greater Manchester town was once a proud hive of industry as one of the world's biggest textile manufacturers.

"But local resident Yasmin Begum, 27, who was recently hired as a customer services advisor after four months on the dole, told us: 'There are no jobs here. I've had to go out of town to find work. And the longer people are out of work, the more likely they are to get used to not working.'"

To find the workless areas, reporters checked Office of National Statistics figures on benefit claims for 35,000 areas across the nation, each with around 1,500 inhabitants.