Last updated at 16:22, Tuesday, 31 July 2012

THE cost to the taxpayer for supporting drug addicts and alcoholics across Barrow, South Lakeland and Copeland through benefits is a staggering £32,000 a week.

Figures released by the government show the total includes people on Incapacity Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance where they cite the primary reason for claiming the benefit is alcoholism or drug problems.

Also included are payments for people claiming the lowest level of one of the two Disability Living Allowance (DLA) components at £20.55 a week.

The actual total for Barrow, Copeland and South Lakeland could be up to £10,000 higher depending on what level and components of DLA the 90 claimants across the three areas qualify for. The annual cost for the three areas is £1.66m – £739,024 for Barrow, £494,598 for Copeland and £443,040 for South Lakeland. A breakdown shows there are 50 people claiming incapacity benefit paid at £99.15 after 12 months for alcohol dependency in Barrow, 40 in Copeland and 30 in South Lakeland.

A further 30 people in Barrow cite drugs as the reason they cannot work, along with 20 in each of Copeland and South Lakeland. For Employment and Support Allowance, with payments ranging between £99.15 and £105.05 a week, there are 40 alcoholics in Barrow, 30 in South Lakeland and 20 in Copeland.

An NHS Cumbria spokesman said: “The NHS in Cumbria is committed to helping people with drug and alcohol dependency issues to not just break the cycle of addiction, but to begin building new sustainable lives for themselves by helping them to long term recovery.

“In order to do this, we have already this year commissioned a new NHS trust, to run drug and alcohol services in the county, asking them to focus less on maintaining people with dependency issues and instead looking at how they can help them change their lives completely.

“This is through supporting them to find employment or training and rebuild relationships with friends and family who will further support them in the future.

“It is important that everyone works together, not just health services to support people with addiction problems, so we can ensure that we truly break that cycle and enable people to start supporting themselves.”

The figures were released to highlight the government’s claim that the welfare system is in need of an overhaul.

Employment minister Chris Grayling said: “These figures show the scale of the problem and the ludicrous situation that used to exist and why we are right to reform the system.”

First published at 16:11, Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk