SHOCKING new figures have revealed that East Ayrshire has been named in the top five worst areas for workless households in the UK.

A study by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that East Ayrshire was second in terms of the percentage of workless households, with a massive 28.5 per cent.

The study defines a workless household as households where no-one aged 16 or over is in employment.

East Ayrshire was narrowly beaten to second spot by Glasgow, which has 28.6 per cent.

The two Scottish regions topped the poll, with Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Liverpool completing the top five.

The bottom five areas were located in the south east of England - West Sussex (8.8 per cent), Surrey (9.6 per cent), Berkshire (10.4 per cent), Hertfordshire (10.6 per cent ) and Outer London South (10.8 per cent).

This year’s figures are an improvement for East Ayrshire based on the previous year when it was ranked first.

Dumfries and Galloway fared much better - coming as the 18th most workless households.

Weighing in on the ONS report, local SNP MSP Adam Ingram said: “These are shocking statistics which confirms that the UK economic policy is not working, and in fact the worklessness problem in Ayrshire is growing rather than showing signs of being dealt with effectively. Job creating powers are desperately needed in the Scottish Parliament and it’s vital that these are made available through the Smith Commission process so that we can target areas like Ayrshire for economic regeneration and job creation.” Mr Ingram added: “It is also notable that sickness, both long-term and temporary have been cited as the main reason for worklessness so the current austerity measures targeted at vulnerable people in this situation is compounding the misery and increasing poverty. That’s why the Scottish Parliament needs to assume responsibility for the welfare system in this country, we would then have the tools to mount an effective attack on worklessness and poverty in Ayrshire.” In Scotland, of the people living in workless households, 33.7 per cent said they were not working because of sickness or disability. In Northern Ireland the figure was 36.4 per cent with 28.5 per cent in Wales and 26.6 per cent in England.