Oldham continues to top the universal credit claimant figures in the month to August 13th with the highest number of new claimants, the Department for Work & Pensions states “The Jobcentre Plus office with the largest caseload was Oldham, with 3,250 Universal Credit claimants, followed by Wigan, with 2,359 (caseload breakdown by Jobcentre Plus office. In the past month, there have been more starts to Universal Credit in Oldham Jobcentre Plus office than any other (293 people starting). Moreover, Oldham has the highest cumulative number of starts of any Jobcentre Plus Office (5,627).”
Figures also released today show that in July 2015 the average weekly pay for the wholesale, retail, hotels & restaurants sector was £138 lower than the weekly average pay in any other employment sector. Hotel Future, Prince’s Gate, and the Town Hall Cinema will eventually deliver in the majority more jobs in this lowest paid of low paid job sectors; continuing Oldham’s reliance on huge sums of supplementary benefit payments & creating decades of PFI and other loan debts.