NEWHAM has been listed as one of the top 50 areas in Britain for numbers of people on the sick.

The borough houses 0.5 per cent of the national total number of claimants receiving incapacity benefit because they are unable to work owing to illness or disability.

As a result it has been put at number 45 in the list of 50 cities, towns and London boroughs.

Stratford MP Lyn Brown said: "Hand in hand with poverty often comes ill health.

"A lack of money in the pocket translates into physical and mental ill health.

"A challenge for the Government and to all the partners involved is how we can transform the living conditions of people so that they develop better health."

The figures from the Department of Work and Pensions were released at the request of Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil David Laws.

Mr Laws said: "The figures highlight the big disparity in the health of the nation between inner cities such as Glasgow and more affluent parts.

"The Government has talked for too long about benefit reform. Now is the time for a new approach to help the hundreds of thousands of people written off under the existing system to get back to work."

The figures show that the city with the highest number of claimants is Glasgow with 2.29 per cent of the national total receiving £316 million in incapacity benefit last year.

No one claimed this type of benefit on the Isles of Scilly and only 0.01 per cent of the total claimants are from the City of London.