Falinge - an example of welfarism

A week ago the Daily Mail reported on the situation in Falinge, with a population of 4,500 and a former thriving mill "town" in the Rochdale area. In recent years it has seen an large influx of immigrants, mainly from Pakistan, and immigrants now make up more than 30% of families.

Falinge was singled out by the newspaper because of the worklessness, - only just over 250 of the inhabitants are gainfully employed, of 1,141 of working age.

Of those of working age 42.9 percent are receiving incapacity benefit, which pays up to £84.50 a week. This is inadequate, and may go some way to explaining why life expectancy in Falinge is 68, the sixth lowest in Britain.

Local employment was predominantly in the textile industry in Victorian times. When the industry went into structural decline earlier last century the are was blighted, but new employment possibilities came with Turner Bros. asbestos factory, which employed about 3,500 in Falinge. This industry failed in the 1980s and welfare dependency mushroomed.

This represents a failure of government in not encouraging new industry as it did in some areas such as Corby and South Wales, and a willingness to allow hundreds to languish on benefit.

There may be other areas with more on incapacity benefit, with low self worth as well as poor health, but Falinge has a high proportion of such potential workers. (It should be said that nationally, according to Ian Duncan Smith, of working age council tenants only about a third have a full time job.)

This is the challenge for the future, to somehow restore some of these people to the dignity and relative wealth of work. It will not be easy in the middle of a recession, despite the government's posturing, but it is urgent. The longer people have been accustomed to a benefit based life, the more difficult and challenging it will be for them to accept the discipline of working.

It will of course also save government expenditure, and therefore taxes levied. The national expenditure on incapacity benefit could be as much as £7 billion a year, which could be very useful in a future destined to be heavy in government debt for many years.