Area tops league after jobless hike; UNEMPLOYMENT: West Bromwich West sees 75 per cent rise in jobseekers.

Byline: Chris Henwood

WEST Bromwich West suffered the highest rise in unemployment claims over the last year in England, according to a worrying new report published today by the Campaign to End Child Poverty.

A 75 per cent hike in the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) has seen the Black Country constituency top a league of the UK's worst-hit areas.

With 2,003 new claimants this year, it has had to cope with successive job threats and losses, including Connaught and Screwfix in the building trade, retailers Allied Carpets, Adams andWoolworths, andWest Bromwich Building Society in the financial sector.

Even West Bromwich's troubled arts centre The Public had to shed more than two dozen jobs at the beginning of the year.

And the West Midlands lays claim to five constituencies in the top ten, including Erdington, Ladywood,Walsall North, and Coventry North East. The study, Through Thick and Thin: Tackling Child Poverty in Hard Times by leading social policy researcher Donald Hirsch, explains how, after housing costs, an unemployed couple with two small children is left with pounds 225 a week for everything - putting them pounds 115 below the poverty line.

Yesterday the Black Country Mail revealed how Walsall had seen massive rises in unemployment following a report to the town's regeneration committee.

On the streets of Great Bridge today, in West Bromwich West, shoppers told of their worry about the area's job situation.

Mum-of-two Jessica Taylor, aged 38, whose partner works as a mechanic, said they would struggle to live on pounds 225.

"We do worry about unemployment and I'm not sure we could cope on that amount," said Miss Taylor, from, Horseley Road, Great Bridge.

And Tipton pensioner Daisy Delicot claimed her son, a steelworker in Smethwick, was only slightly better off even with a job.

"My son has a wife and two children and they have to live on around pounds 250 after their bills," said the 78-year-old.

West Bromwich West MP Adrian Bailey said the report showed continued public spending was needed. "Through the working tax credits, child benefits and the Child Tax Credit, which is once again set to increase by pounds 20 from April 2010, the Government has helped an estimated 500,000 children out of relative poverty and has halved the number in absolute poverty from 3.4 million to 1.7 million," he said.

However, Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said more investment was needed.

CAPTION(S):

Study: There are more than 2,000 new allowance claimants this year in West Bromwich West.