Nearly half the working age population of one district in Cardiff is claiming out-of-work benefits

Martin Shipton

A district of Cardiff just two miles from the city centre has been identified as the community with the highest proportion of unemployed benefit claimants in Wales.

As many as 47% of the working age population of Ely East, on the capital’s western fringe, are claiming out-of-work benefits.

The Scottish journalist Fraser Nelson, who edited The Spectator magazine until 2024, has analysed figures for the whole of Britain released by the Department for Work and Pensions and expressed alarm at the high proportion of claimants.

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Claimants

The top 10 districts, which are smaller than local government wards, in terms of sickness benefit claimants and all out-of-work benefit claimants are:

Ely East

Sickness Benefit: 28%

All Out-Of Work Benefits: 47%

Rhyl North, Denbighshire

Sickness Benefit: 28%

All Out-Of Work Benefits 44%

Penderry, Swansea

Sickness Benefit: 27%

All Out-Of Work Benefits 42%

Townhill, Swansea

Sickness Benefit: 26%

All Out-Of Work Benefits 43%

Neath Town, Neath Port Talbot

Sickness Benefit: 25%

All Out-Of Work Benefits 35%

Caerau, Bridgend

Sickness Benefit: 24%

All Out-Of Work Benefits 36%

Tylorstown, Rhondda Cynon Taf

Sickness Benefit: 23%

All Out-Of Work Benefits 33%

Caia Park, Wrexham

Sickness Benefit: 23%

All Out-Of Work Benefits 40%

St Mellons West, Cardiff

Sickness Benefit: 23%

All Out-Of Work Benefits 40%

Writing on Substack, Nelson said: The [figures] would be an economic catastrophe if the UK was not able to import workers to take the place of those signed off on benefits. This is my critique of mass immigration: economically, it works too well. It allows us to cover up the cracks in our economy and ignore those who have fallen through.”

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New towers

In Wales, Nerys Lloyd-Pierce, who chairs Cardiff Civic Society, said: “While the centre of Cardiff is shimmering with shiny new towers, and developers are rubbing their hands together with glee, the plight of residents a couple of miles away has been totally ignored.

“These shocking figures show beyond any shadow of a doubt that the theory of ‘trickle-down economics’ is a myth, and a cruel, disingenuous one at that, as it enables us to look the other way. What is even more shameful, however, is that all of this has taken place on Labour’s watch.”

One of the three Labour councillors representing Ely is Cllr Russell Goodway, the cabinet member for investment and development.

Asked by Nation.Cymru about the statistics that put his ward at the top of the Welsh league table for out-of-work benefit claimants, he said: “The figures are shocking but not surprising. We’re aware that if you had a local authority based on the southern arc of Cardiff, taking in districts like Ely and Trowbridge it would be the poorest local authority in Wales.

“There are a number of reasons for that. Some of it is that you have generational unemployment, with families out of work for two or three generations and with no role models to encourage them.

“There is also a public transport issue. Although there’s a good bus service into the centre of Cardiff, there are still problems for people doing early shifts that start at 6 or 7.

“While I’m sure there are people on sickness benefits who could be helped back into work, I wish the UK Government had concentrated more on their health and wellbeing, rather than adopting a punitive approach.

“There are initiatives in England that we could look at to improve adult education and help create more employment opportunities.”

Construction workers

Asked whether the high rise buildings in Cardiff city centre were helping people living in poor areas of the city like Ely, Cllr Goodway said: “They create jobs for construction workers and provide apprenticeships.

“Although solving problems like this will take time, we must never adopt the attitude that nothing can be done. I’d like to see the issues raised by the report you sent me examined by Cardiff council’s economy and culture scrutiny committee.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “These figures are yet more evidence of the broken welfare system we inherited that is denying people in Wales and across the country the support they need to get into work and get on at work.

“That’s why we are rebalancing the rate of Universal Credit to increase work incentives, while also investing £3.8bn over this parliament to genuinely help sick or disabled people into jobs, while ensuring there is always a safety net for the most vulnerable.”
The Welsh Government said: “We offer a range of employability and skills support programmes to help people into decent, well-paid jobs, and during 2023-2024 our Employability Programmes supported over 20,000 out-of-work adults.

“Earlier this year we launched our Economic Inactivity Trailblazer pilots in Wales, providing up to £10 million in funding to trial new interventions to support people who are economically inactive into work. Work has also begun to develop an Employability Support Programme in Wales that will bring our key employability programmes (ReAct +, Jobs Growth Wales + and Communities for Work) together.”

Barrier

The Welsh Government’s view is that the sickness benefit system can act as a barrier to employment and actively discourage people from thinking about finding a job. It welcomes the draft 'right to try work’ regulations recently introduced by the UK Government, which explicitly exclude starting paid work as a circumstance that could trigger a new work capability assessment or review of Personal Independence Payment entitlement.

The initiative Communities for Work Plus (CfW+) has engaged with more than 4,000 participants since April 2025 and supported 1,800 into jobs of 16 hours or more. Since 2018, CFW+ has worked with over 70,000 participants and helped more than 30,000 secure employment.