VICTIMS of redundancies made at the start of the year are swelling the ranks of people claiming jobless benefits in the south.

Official records published yesterday show 28,957 people in the region claimed Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) in February – up by 18 per cent on the previous month.

Across the south-east, just over three per cent of the population are now claiming JSA.

Employment Minister Tony McNulty told the Daily Echo things would get worse before they got better and warned that the south would not “escape” the downturn.

He insisted the economy and the Jobcentre Plus network were better placed to handle the recession than they were during the early 1990s, when more than eight per cent of the south-east’s population claimed jobless benefits.

A breakdown of the figures published yesterday by the UK Statistics Authority showed the Hampshire County Council area suffered one of the largest increases in claimants in February – up by more than 20 per cent on the previous month, to 18,185.

Southampton recorded a 13 per cent rise, to 5,932. The number of claimants on the Isle of Wight rose by 11 per cent to 3,508 while those in Salisbury climbed by almost 25 per cent to 1,332.

Nationally, the number of JSA claimants rose by 138,400 (ten per cent) to reach 1.39 million.

Unemployment topped the two million mark for the first time in 12 years.

Daily Echo: Unemployment benefit figures March 2009

Mr McNulty argued that the increase in the February figures may have been exacerbated to some extent by the annual “post- Christmas” effect, but admitted it was also evidence that the “ongoing downturn”

was hitting the south.

He said: “I fear there is no evidence that we have reached the bottom yet.

It’s a very bad picture.

“My job is to make sure there’s as much support available as possible.

No matter how hard times get, we will not give up on anyone who loses their job and will continue to provide real help to everyone who needs it.”