Inside Birkenhead, the town set to bear brunt of Labour’s benefits cuts

In Birkenhead’s sweeping Hamilton Square, the town’s past prosperity is evident – there are more Grade I-listed buildings here than in any square outside of London.

The money came from shipbuilding, with Cammell Laird‘s prolific yard producing thousands of vessels including some of the most famous to grace the oceans such as the world’s first steel ship, the Ma Roberts and the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

But the industry’s decline since the Second World War has been sharp – Cammell Laird now employs only 650 workers compared to 10,000 at its peak.

Jacob Larsen, 21, and his friend Lily, 19, say most young people now turn to hospitality, retail or construction to find a job – and still have to rely on benefits to get by.

Both are in receipt of Person Independence Payments (PIP) because of mental health struggles – Jacob also receives universal credit.

They are worried about reports the Government is looking to cut as much as £6bn a year from the welfare bill to help balance the public finances, with potential measures including a freeze on PIP.

The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has told his MPs the current level of taxpayer-funded welfare – which has soared since the pandemic and is forecast to hit £70bn over the next five years – is “unsustainable, indefensible and unfair”.

“I don’t agree with the Government, it’s just another way to control vulnerable people,” said Jacob, who works in a bar.

“I started getting [PIP] when I started living on my own. It helps me with rent.

“It is difficult [to get], I had to wait nine months, it got refused three times – they were saying ‘you seem fine’. I’ve got ADD [Attention Deficit Disorder] and they weren’t recognising that.”

Lily receives £300 a month in PIP but lives with her mum and says she gives her more than half the money straight away to contribute towards housing costs.

The rest goes on transport so she can attend college three times a week and her job on a farm another two days.

“I hope they don’t cut it,” she says. “It’s helped me a lot.”

Benefits – essential safety net or unearned handout?

Although they receive benefits, both Jacob and Lily believe that too many people are abusing the system and they would rather they didn’t have to rely on them.

“When I turn 21, I don’t want it,” said Lily. “I’m trying to work on getting off PIP, I don’t want to be on benefits, I want to be stable, independent.

“All my mates think life is so easy – but I’m 19 and I feel like I’m 50.”

She added: “My mates – I love them but they’ve made it clear they want to stay on benefits, they just want the money. They’ve got a negative attitude.

“I’m going to leave Birkenhead, I want to go to Liverpool. It’s not a good area.”

Jacob said he knows lots of people locally who spend their benefits money on drugs and alcohol. “Some people are lazy,” he added.

Conflicting opinions on welfare – seen by some as an essential safety net protecting the most vulnerable, and by others as an unearned handout the taxpayer can’t afford – reflect what a difficult area this will be for Labour to reform.

The i Paper revealed this week that an increasing number of backbench MPs are uncomfortable about the prospect of cuts and the government may be prepared to water them down.

Any changes will have a big impact on people in Birkenhead, a town on the banks of the River Mersey with high levels of deprivation.

Around 6 per cent of working-age people claim out-of-work benefits here, compared to only 2.1 per cent in the more affluent parts in the west of the Wirral Peninsula.

If those on long-term sickness are included, it is even higher.

In Birkenhead central, a small area of the town with around 5,600 working-age people, 51 per cent are on out-of-work benefits, the commentator Fraser Nelson calculated.

Why vulnerable people won’t cope with cuts

“The need has increased,” says Alisha Riley, a wellbeing recovery worker at the Spider Project, a Community Interest Company (CIC) that helps people with mental health and addiction issues in Birkenhead.

“And the type of need has increased, there’s people with more complex issues than before.

“The level of demand is significant.”

Almost everyone who uses the Spider Project receives benefits and they often need help to navigate what can be a complicated system run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

“It’s a massive, massive stress for people who rely on that money,” Alisha added.

“The process is already so stressful for people to go through, lots of people can’t do it themselves.

“You have people coming in saying ‘I dont know what to do, I’ve not got any food’.

“It’s going to be a huge stress if you’re telling people that’s going to be frozen or harder to get.

“They might be able to do an art class or volunteer but long-term employment is not something that is feasible for them.

“If people are being pushed too quickly they end up back at square one.”

Moira McAdam, project manager at Number 7 in Birkenhead, is equally fearful about the impact of welfare cuts on the vulnerable people she encounters.

The non-profit organisation runs a community cafe which feeds dozens of homeless people every day and a citizens’ supermarket where prices are 25 per cent discounted.

Launched in 2018 with the support of former Labour MP Frank Field, people can only become members to use the supermarket if they are receipt of benefits and meet a strict criteria on monthly income.

“We had this idea that we might have 100 people who would be in desperate need,” said Moira.

“We currently have 1,200 members.

“We had a girl come in last week with a baby, she had nothing… it can be quite despressing.

“When [energy regulator] Ofgem and DWP came here the other week we told them about an elderly woman who has been heating tins over a candle, she can’t afford gas and electric.

“They were horrified.”

“The number of people we help has just risen and risen in the last couple of years.”

A benefits adviser visits Number 7 every week and Moira said members are often asking for help getting a job.

Sometimes they are able to offer some volunteering work to those who are able to gain some experience.

“There’s a lot of deprivation in Birkenhead, they are trying to build it back up, they are supposed to have jobs coming, building houses,” Moira added.

“There’s so many people coming through the door and it’s not going away.

“I dont know what the answer is.”

The political party finding a ‘space’ in left-behind places

It is not only the town’s vulnerable residents who are struggling to make ends meet.

Back in Hamilton Square, Wirral Council confirmed this month it will have to close the Town Hall as part of a series of cost-custting measures designed to save £25m.

Support for regeneration projects is also facing the axe and the failure of mainstream parties to reverse the decline in Birkenhead has opened the door to political alternatives.

But here it is not Reform that has taken advantage – the Green party has fourteen of the 66 seats on Wirral Council.

Pat Cleary, the green councillor for Birkenhead and Tranmere, told The i Paper that support for his party is “a feature of left-behind communities”.

“There’s a space opening up for us,” he said.

“Taking benefits away to pay for defence – that’s a political choice and we’ve got a different answer.

“And there isn’t really anybody on the Left with another option.

“In places like this we’ve worked hard and grown the party.

“We’ve earned a reputation for getting stuff done, that’s much harder and takes more effort than what Reform do, but it’s a sustainable model.”

Cllr Cleary is also fearful about what welfare cuts would do to people in Birkenhead.

“Like many places, particularly in the North, Birkenhead has suffered from post-industrialisation, the decline in shipyards has been a long issue,” he said.

“We would be deeply concerned about cuts to welfare, we would want to see a much better strategy of support for places like this, to rebuilding communities and supporting them.

“Not just cutting their welfare which will make life much more difficult for people who are struggling.

“People will be frightened [by cuts], they will be scared.”

Alison McGovern, the Labour MP for Birkenhead who is also Employment Minister, has publicly her support for reforming the benefits system in recent months.

She told The i Paper: “The Prime Minister visited Birkenhead last week, stressing that investment in towns like ours is one of his priorities. It was great to see him spend time at Cammell Laird and talk about the importance of apprenticeships and getting people into good jobs.

“Like everywhere else, we have our challenges, but there are huge opportunities in Birkenhead. For example, to build new homes at Hind Street, and in building on the new cultural events on our side of the Mersey at Future Yard and the renewed Williamson.

“We know that we have our challenges, but what we need most are more good jobs to lift wages up, and the action the Labour Government is taking to make life more affordable: investing in our NHS, cutting energy bills, and properly upgrading employment rights and employment support for the first time in a generation.

“And through big changes to our jobcentres, we’re working to make sure that everyone can access all the opportunities created by this Labour government.”