THE local boozer is packed and in the bookies a small crowd cheers on the 2.20 at Kempton.

The Brownhill Hotel pub is doing a brisk trade in pints at ฃ1.43 - but little else is booming in the area dubbed "Dole Town".

This is the Lower Falinge estate in Rochdale, which has just been named Britain's worst benefit blackspot.

Ronald ... 'People play the system and claim they're sick'TERRY KANE / EYEWITNESS IMAGES A staggering 84 per cent of working age residents in the Central and Falinge area are on benefits.

A jobless rate of 120 per cent is probably explained by a combination of benefit fiddling and outdated statistics.

The only hint of work is at the handful of kebab shops, a Polish delicatessen, the butchers and three council workers cutting the grass.

Three of the area's five pubs are boarded up. Dealers sell wraps of heroin for just ฃ5.

A sign warns the dog virus parvovirus is rampant in the area. Tired-looking England flags are draped across balconies and pitbull-type dogs strain on the leash.

Rebecca ... 'Everyone's on benefits. Drugs are rife'TERRY KANE / EYEWITNESS Lower Falinge is home to 1,030 people in low-rise council blocks with 865 dependant on benefits. There are 440 incapacity benefit claimants and 315 on Job Seekers' Allowance.

Single mum Rebecca Kanko, 24, has received income support, child tax credit, child benefit and housing benefit for three years.

She said: "Everyone's on it here - all my neighbours. No one's got a job. I don't like going out at night.

The young lads hang out and smoke drugs. There's a lot of drug dealing - heroin and the like. It's very cheap."

One of the few people with a job is South African Ronald Hough, 40. He came to Britain six years ago and earns ฃ8-an-hour as a hospital porter. Ronald said: "The only jobs round here are low paid. The jobs are depressing and they treat you badly.

"I don't blame English people for not wanting to do them as they do well on benefits.

Keith ... 'Labour made everything worse'TERRY KANE / EYEWITNESS IMAGES "A lot of the people play the system and claim they're sick."

Anthony Eastwood, 53, was recently made redundant from his job at a local bakery. He now receives Job Seekers' Allowance and housing benefit.

He said: "There are no jobs."

However, at a local job centre there are more than 100 advertised. They range from a ฃ5.93-an-hour cleaner, ฃ6-an-hour bin loader, ฃ13,500 assistant manager to a ฃ30,000-a-year sales consultant.

Keith Deakin, 47, has been unemployed for eight years after a supermarket closed. He now lives with his mum on benefits. He said: "I blame Labour. They had 13 years to sort the country out but now it's in an even worse state."

In the Victorian age Falinge was a booming mill town. The Turner Brothers asbestos factory also employed 3,500. But one by one the factories closed.

At 2.30pm there are more than 40 people packed into the Brownhill Hotel pub - 25 are of working age. One drinker said: "It's quiet today

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/3175355/Britains-worst-welfare-blackspot.html#ixzz127ExQ9pI

Just as well there are no Asian or Middle Eastern immigrants living in that town and bludging off the system. That would be a REAL scandal.

(whats the smiley for sarcasm?)

Just as well there are no Asian or Middle Eastern immigrants living in that town and bludging off the system. That would be a REAL scandal.

(whats the smiley for sarcasm?)

dont be silly Harcourt, that is too ' lower class ' for them, they are all in Mayfair , Knightsbridge and Kennsington in there 1.2 million Pound homes , of course funded by the Tax Payer

:DSilly me.

Falinge is the apartment block area and full to the brim of Polish and asylum seekers. The rest of the area are council houses and full to the brim of Pakistani's. That is why all of those pubs are closed. There used to be a big beautiful pub called the Victoria but it got turned (at great expense to the council) into a family dwelling for a Muslim family with a lot of kids.

That area really is the pits of Rochdale.