Inside Britain’s worst benefits blackspot where drug gangs take over homes & kids suffer ‘Victorian’ levels of poverty

ON the memorial wall of the youth club, the names of 46 former members are immortalized on wooden plaques.

It bears witness to the tragic death of young people aged 12 to 35 — but it is not a war commemoration or a tribute to those who died in a terrible accident.

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Grimsby, once a proud fishing community, is in the bottom three per cent for poverty in BritainCredit: GettyCanon John Ellis with the Shalom Youth Club monument to young former members

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Canon John Ellis with Shalom Youth Club memorial to young former members Credit: Paul TongeFormer heroin user Paul McPhee receives £328 fortnightly compensation

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Former heroin user Paul McPhee receives £328 fortnightly benefits Credit: Paul Tonge

That’s the real cost of living on Britain’s worst benefits.

Among the names on the Shalom Youth Club memorial on Grimsby’s East Marsh estate are the victims of 16 drug overdoses, six murders and five suicides – the sum total of miseries caused by a toxic mix of unemployment, drink, drugs and gambling problems.

More than half of the estate’s residents live on handouts, and life expectancy is 12 years below average.

The area is overrun with “county line” gangs — criminals who force victims to transport drugs across police and local authority boundaries, and who often “hook up”, or take over a vulnerable person’s home to use as a base for their operations.

Police had to rescue an East Marsh family with three primary school-aged children from the clutches of dealers who had moved into their home.

Canon John Ellis, who has run a local youth project for 52 years, said: “I’ve never seen it this bad.

“People are prey to drug dealers and gangs and what little money they have they spend on drinking and gambling.

“For the first time, we have children coming to our door who, when asked which school they go to, say ‘I don’t go.’

“Poverty levels are Victorian.

Reeves confirms a big increase in benefits as payouts rise to £253 next year

“We’ve all seen the statistics about the number of jobs available, but when a community sinks this low in its esteem, people turn to a completely different way of life.

“Hiring is a big step because, let’s be honest, it’s pretty comfortable to sit back and relax.

“This community has to realize that there is no cavalry and they have to help themselves.”

Grimsby, in north-east Lincs, has become synonymous with poverty and crime over the years, and East Marsh, the center of a once proud fishing community, is in the bottom three per cent for poverty in Britain.

At The Rock food bank, a drunken monk drinks his bottle of Carlsberg and then picks up a bag of food, while outside a junkie collapses against the wall, unable to stand.

Former heroin user Paul McPhee is also on the food queue, receiving £328 a fortnight in Employment and Support Allowance, a benefit for the sick and disabled.

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He has no rent or bills to pay because he lives in a supported housing complex.

In East Marsh, 33 per cent of people receive sick pay, while 11 per cent receive Jobseeker’s Allowance and nine per cent receive other benefits.

Paul, 54, told The Sun: “I used to work as a housing association support officer but I lost my job because I was accused of stealing from a client — although no charges were ever laid and I never would have done it.

“That was in 2014 and since then I have not been able to get a job.

Death threats

“Now I’m clean, but I used drugs because I had really bad mental problems.

“If I had gotten the help I needed then, I might not be here now.”

The Rock’s founder Pam Hodge said the charity, which feeds around 600 people a week, was stuck in a “carousel” of feeding people, most of whom grew up in the care system and were in and out of prison.

At the nearby Salvation Army center, the homeless Baccellini family – Amy and Dino and their children Kyle (14), Kylie (13), Lexie (11), Carlo (10) and seven-year-old Gino – sit waiting for their laundry to dry.

This community must realize that the cavalry is not coming and that they must help themselves

Canon John Ellis

They live in a three-bedroom guest house in nearby Cleethorpes after fleeing Grimsby’s notorious Nunsthorpe estate, where drugs and crime are rife.

The family was moved from pillar to post, living in temporary accommodation for three years – and none of the children went to school during that time.

They previously fled Leicester in 2021 after receiving death threats from extended family and lived in a series of temporary caravans in Skegness before being told they might have a better chance of a permanent home in Grimsby.

Amy said: “The local authority gave us a temporary house on the Nuns-thorpe estate and things were OK for a while.

“But they said the kids would have to go to four different schools, all outside the area, and we didn’t have a car to take them there.

Reverend Kay Jones leads the group for a social lunch

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Reverend Kay Jones leads the social lunch group Credits: Paul TongeSerena Donnelly with her four-year-old son Alex

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Serena Donnelly with her four-year-old son Alex Credits: Paul Tonge

“We had to be educated at home.

“We kept a low profile on the property, and then a stupid rumor spread that we were in witness protection and people started calling us snitches, throwing eggs at our house.

“Then Kylie was badly attacked by a woman who lived nearby and the council evicted us for our protection.

“We spent the last two months living in a temporary B&B.

“The council says it will pay £600 to a private landlord, but everyone wants guarantors and we don’t have anyone. It’s hopeless.”

In Skegness, the family was accommodated in SEVEN different caravans, two B&Bs and a holiday cottage between July 2022 and March 2023.

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East Lindsey Council has been investigated by the ombudsman over its treatment of the family.

The family was found to have suffered communication delays and ordered authorities to pay £500 for failing to protect property which was destroyed after being forced to store it under a caravan.

The council told The Sun: “The Ombudsman publishes the findings of cases it investigates.

“East Lindsey District Council takes all feedback from the ombudsman seriously and uses it to further improve council services as necessary.”

Although Grimsby is surrounded by posh countryside, the town itself is overshadowed by shuttered shops, covered in graffiti, litter-strewn neighborhoods populated by street drunks and aimless youth.

It is the epitome of a broken Britain, where 9.25 million, or more than a fifth of the working-age population, are out of work or not actively looking for one.

Last month the government unveiled its Get Britain Working programme, which aims to put two million young people out of work into work.

But they will face an uphill battle in places like East Marsh, where benefits have become almost a cultural norm.

Reverend Kay Jones, who runs a community lunch and play group at St John and St Stephen’s Church in East Marsh, said: “When this was a fishing area, how much you earned depended on the size of your catch.

‘Too risky’

“But when benefits were introduced, many saw it as a steady source of income, some stability.”

Most of those who work in the city depend on the dominant frozen seafood industry.

The job at Young’s, which supplies around 40 per cent of the fish eaten in Britain, is currently being advertised for £12.21 an hour – above the national living wage of £11.44 – but one agency is offering below, at £11, 41 pounds.

It’s really exhausting to think about money all the time, but I’m not good enough to work

Serena

Reverend Jones said many people felt it was “too risky” to leave benefits and start work in case they did not have enough working hours to qualify for Working Tax Credit.

In the church hall, Emily Gould, 31, is just grateful for the company as her partner James, a 29-year-old electrician, works during the week in Leeds, 62 miles away.

She said: “I don’t think people necessarily don’t want to work, but that sometimes they get more benefits.”

Serena Donnelly, who is at the clinic with her four-year-old son Alex, says she can’t work because she has fibromyalgia, a condition that causes pain, fatigue and brain fog.

Serena, 31, who also has an 11-year-old daughter, receives £1,900 a month in benefits and is left with around £250 for food and clothing after paying £570 in rent, £130 in gas and electricity, £44 in council tax, water bills and Sky TV.

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She said: “It’s really exhausting to think about money all the time but I’m not well enough to work.

“I’m struggling to get baby things for Christmas, I shop on sites like Temu and get toys from the NSPCC to help.”

Almost in tears, she added: “Sometimes things are so bad I just want to run away.”

The Baccellini family - Amy and Dino and their children Kyle (14), Kylie (13), Lexie (11), Carlo (10) and seven-year-old Gino are homeless

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The Baccellini Family — Amy and Dino and their children Kyle (14), Kylie (13), Lexie (11), Carlo (10) and seven-year-old Gino are homeless Credit: Paul Tonge

Grimsby is now betting its future on renewable energy, with some of Europe’s largest wind farms generating power not far from the coast.

Danish giant Orsted has a base in the city, and small supply ships launch from the docks, ferrying engineers and equipment to the huge offshore turbines.

But the work is highly specialized and Canon Ellis said the jobs are almost never advertised in the local job centre.

He said East Marsh was suffering from a lack of good educational opportunities following the closure of two schools, adding: “It has forced children to go to suburban schools where the teachers don’t understand them and they feel they don’t fit in.”

He continued: “The fishing was grim, reel grinding, but it didn’t require the level of skill required for those offshore wind jobs.

“A few ex-fishermen got jobs driving safety boats, but there are few people in the community who can work in that sector.

“Many parents are drunk or drugged, and we have children who grow up here without any support except the youth center, and the only adults they see are the police or social workers.

“They’re running rampant around the place and when the county gangs pay them some attention, they react and get drawn into it.

“Housing is bad and damp, and private owners don’t care about their houses, leaving them to decay.

“They’re hunting people, along with drug dealers and county lines.

“We have a regular guest who comes in, who is very vulnerable, and dealers keep coming to his place.

“We have someone who goes and knocks them out, but they come back the next week.

“Gambling is a big problem because people are just looking for something to relieve themselves or hope they can win the lottery.

“If you imagine a street with vultures sitting on every roof, that’s East Marsh.

“To turn things around, it will take a lot more than a politician promising to put Britain back to work.

“People here have heard it all before.”

Grimsby used to rely on the fishing industry

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Grimsby used to rely on the fishing industryCredit: AlamyKeir Starmer at a wind farm near the city

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Keir Starmer in a wind farm near the city Credit: PA

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