'Many lack cash contingency plan'

Nearly 300,000 heroin and crack cocaine users in England are claiming state benefits, the Department for Work and Pensions said.

A report said about 270,000 "problematic drug users" were claiming in 2006 - making up 6% of the total number of working-age individuals on benefits.

In contrast, just 1.1% of the whole of England's working-age population are estimated to be heroin or crack users.

The research by the universities of Bath and Glasgow found the proportion was greater for younger age groups, with around 7.4% of claimants under 25 years being drug users.

The majority of drug users accessing benefits are male (76%) and there is a regional variation, with the highest prevalence being in London.

Dr Linda Bauld, of Bath University's Department of Social and Policy Sciences, said: "This feasibility study brought together data from different sources to estimate the uptake of some of the main benefits such as jobseekers allowance and incapacity benefit.

"What the study shows is that there is a higher proportion of drug users amongst benefit recipients than there is in the population overall. This finding raises a number of questions for research and policy that we hope can be examined in future studies."

Estimates were derived for the following benefits; disability living allowance, incapacity benefit, income support and jobseekers' allowance (JSA) and a combined "main benefits" group.

The analysis was carried out by gender and age group as well as regionally.

The breakdown of problematic drug users claiming individual benefits is: jobseekers' allowance - 66,000 (8.2%); income support - 146,000 (8.1%); incapacity benefit - 87,000 (4.4%); disability living allowance - 25,000 (1.9%).