Benefits claimants told ‘it’s your duty to work if you can’ as Jeremy Hunt prepares to unveil Autumn Statement

Barking and Dagenham and Hackney are the boroughs with the highest proportion of claimants, with 16 per cent of the working-age population on out-of-work benefits in February 2023, a number unchanged since the same month in 2021 during the height of the Covid pandemic.