Exit Margate’s train station, and your gaze soon turns to a towering sign for the iconic Dreamland amusement park. Newly restored with neon lettering, it is hard to miss and elicits the nostalgia-induced rush often associated with seaside towns like this.
Yet, much of the young adult population here and across this stretch of coastal Kent are struggling to make ends meet, let alone follow their own “dreams”.
In Thanet, the local authority area which counts the likes of Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs among its constituent towns, new research has revealed that almost one in three people in their twenties are receiving universal credit (UC), a benefit paid to help with living costs for those on a low income, out of work or unable to work.
What we know so far about RAF Fairford ‘bomb plot’
Five men were arrested on terror charges and villagers evacuated from their homes after a major incident was declared near the RAF Fairford airbase used by the US Air Force.
Aerial footage showed a bomb disposal robot inspecting three white vans in the area.
What are they accused of?
- The men were initially arrested on suspicion of Explosives Act offences.
- Police were called out to three suspicious vans heading towards the airbase in Gloucestershire at 12.45am on Sunday.
- The five men were later further arrested on suspicion of the preparation of a terrorist act, with counter-terrorism policing officers now leading the investigation.
5 min read
How were they caught?
A local farmer spotted the seemingly abandoned white vans blocking a quiet country road a few hundred metres from RAF Fairford when driving home from a party.
The farmer told she saw a group of “young” men, some wearing “masks or balaclavas”, running into the trees and across fields towards the airbase. She called the police and warned neighbours to lock their doors.
RAF Fairford’s links to Iran war
A senior Western intelligence source told The i Paper the assumption is that those involved in this incident are likely to be proxies for a hostile state. Iran is understood to be the leading suspect.
- The US Air Force has used RAF Fairford to carry out bombing missions against Iran in a bid to protect ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
- In July, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) warned against allowing US bombers to fly from British bases, saying such sites would be legitimate targets.
- A UK Government spokesperson said at the time: “Our armed forces are ready to keep the United Kingdom safe from any kind of attacks, whether it’s on our soil or from abroad.”
- Inquiries have yet to rule out Russia or even domestic activity.
What did the police say?
I can’t go into details, but I can give reassurance that we believe the matter to be contained and as a set of agencies working together across Gloucestershire, we are gathering and responding to local intelligence all the time.
Gloucestershire Police temporary Chief Constable, Maggie Blyth.
How puzzles may ‘reduce age-related cognitive decline’
Researchers found memory, logic and reasoning puzzles with advice on diet and exercise, can help improve thinking and memory problems.
How the study works
- The study examined people aged 60-85 with low cognitive scores.
- They were split into three groups. One group was given evidence-based advice on diet.
- The second used a website called Active Brains, which provides cognitive exercises in the form of puzzles.
- The third group were directed to the same website and also given “brief support” with a nurse.
5 min read
The study’s findings
- After 12 months, all groups showed improvement in their cognitive scores and a significant proportion no longer met the criteria for age-related cognitive decline.
- 28 per cent of people who were given simple lifestyle advice were no longer deemed to have cognitive decline.
- This increased to 33 per cent of those directed to the website and 32 per cent of those directed to the website and given additional support.
- Among those directed to the website and given additional support, there was an 18 per cent reduction in severe cognitive impairment compared to those who were just given advice, researchers found.
Hear from the researchers
Professor Paul Little, co-lead of the study, said: “These are really exciting findings that people can easily take on board.
“Simple messages and simple things that people can do really make a difference – and the NHS does not need to spend a lot of money.”
He added the research team was “surprised” by the cognitive improvement seen among people just given “brief advice”.
What do the experts say?
Experts said the study was “encouraging”, but added some caveats.
Dr Richard Oakley from the Alzheimer’s Society said: “People should not take this study to mean that doing puzzles can reverse dementia or improve symptoms for everyone living with memory problems.”
4 min read
Sycamore Gap stump shows new shoots three years after felling
Three years after it was illegally felled, photos show a thick ring of new shoots around the stump of the sycamore tree made famous by 1991’s Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.
What happened to it?
The tree, which was planted in the late 1800s in Northumberland, was illegally felled in September 2023 by Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers, causing national outcry.
In 2025, the pair were jailed for four years and three months for criminal damage for cutting down the iconic tree with a chainsaw.
Slow recovery starts to show
Now, the National Trust, which operates the site at Hadrian’s Wall, has revealed the stump has shown new growth.
Since it was felled, the remaining stump has been protected by a barrier, allowing nature to take its course and new green shoots to spring up.
Promising signs
These flourishing shoots are really encouraging and show that the special measures we’ve taken, including reducing soil compaction around the roots and limiting human disturbance, are paying off.
Andrew Poad, general manager for the National Trust at Hadrian’s Wall
How triple lock could be axed to pay for national care service
Andy Burnham’s plan to put free social care in Labour’s next general election manifesto could be part of a grand bargain to drop the state pension triple lock, Labour MPs believe.
What you need to know
- A Labour MP told The i Paper that introducing the NHS-style care service would be a “politically smart” way to “sugar the pill” of finally scrapping the lock
- On Sunday, the PM kicked off Labour’s conference in Liverpool by vowing to put forward a plan to voters at the next election in which “everyone contributes, everyone is covered” for social care.
- In private, many MPs across the political spectrum confide that the lock is fundamentally unsustainable over the long term.
Figures chime in
The think-tank said an Australian-style system would deliver savings of about £650m by 2030.
The ex-cabinet minister said getting rid of the triple lock is “an option that the Government should consider”.
The junior minister suggested tax rises would be needed to fund the policy, saying it “isn’t going to be cheap”.
A word of warning
A backbencher cautioned that Burnham would have to tread carefully. “We will need to try and secure a cross-party consensus on adult social care,” they said.
Back in 2017, Theresa May proposed replacing the triple lock with a “double lock”. The policy was dubbed a “dementia tax” and the Tories subsequently lost their majority.
3 min read
That is one of the highest rates of UC claimants among working-age young people in the country, a “scary” situation campaigners have warned risks a “forgotten generation” being “dumped on benefits, written off and condemned to a life of dependency”.
Jobseekers, meanwhile, spoke of their frustration at struggling to find work as well as feelings of “shame” they associated with attending their local Jobcentre.
The country-wide picture
Thanet was second only to Blackpool – which The i Paper visited earlier this month – among all councils in England and Wales when it came to the proportion of 20- to 29-year-olds claiming UC, according to analysis by the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA).
In Thanet, 31.6 per cent of people in that age bracket were receiving the benefit as of May 2026, the TPA found.
The research also revealed that a fifth (20.3 per cent) of all working-age adults – 7.3 million people aged 20 to 64 – were claiming UC as of May, including 17 per cent of people in their twenties.
That last statistic highlights the severity of the situation in Thanet for young people in particular – the council area is close to double the country’s average rate for people in their twenties, and the rate stays high for those in their thirties (35.4 per cent) and forties (33.1 per cent).
While the councils with higher proportions of older people on benefits were concentrated around London, areas with a higher percentage of younger people on UC tended to be around coastal towns like Blackpool, Thanet, Hartlepool and Great Yarmouth.
And while UC can be claimed by people who are working but on a low income, data updated in April showed that 12,151 of the 19,155 individuals receiving the benefit in East Thanet were not in employment, representing 19.3 per cent of the working-age population.
The TPA’s chief executive, John O’Connell, said that “in some places, dependency on universal credit has become endemic”.
“Generations are being dumped on benefits; written off and condemned to a life of dependency as ministers make it harder for them to find a job,” he added.
“If Andy Burnham was serious about growth in every postcode, he would be making it more affordable to hire young people.”
Thanet is among the areas that has experienced an influx of Londoners in recent years, with its seaside towns like Margate developing a reputation as trendy and comparatively affordable alternatives to the capital that offer a slower-paced lifestyle without losing direct transport links to the city.
Possible effects of – or attractions to – that migration are observed in some of the chic clothes stores and quaint coffee shops dotted near the seafront.
What may be lacking, though, are opportunities for local young people to take their first steps onto the career ladder.
‘You apply for jobs and they never get back to you – not even a rejection’
Outside the local Jobcentre in Margate, 18-year-old Lara told The i Paper about her first appointment as she sought to begin receiving UC while out of work on health grounds.
“Because of issues with sleeping and my heart, I just want to get a bit of money whilst I’m waiting for all my tests to be done, then I can get medication and try to find work again,” she said.
The teenager previously worked at McDonald’s – “the only place that was hiring here at the time” – for nine months, as well as attending college, before her health issues meant she was unable to continue either pursuit until she could receive treatment.
“The frustrating thing about it is that I do want to work, I just physically can’t right now,” Lara continued.
“Once they figure out what’s going on and say I can get on medication, then I’ll be fine; then I can start with something like barista work. When I go back to college, I want to do something to do with forensics.”
Lara said she knows of just one friend from college who is working, “and that’s because they had connections”. “Otherwise, all of my other friends are trying to find jobs and they say it’s really difficult,” she added.
“You apply for jobs and then they never get back to you, it’s not even a rejection. Jobs ask you to have work experience, and it’s like, well, you can’t really get a job without work experience; so, how are you going to get your first job?
“You can’t even go in and put your CV in places anymore either, because they want you to do it all online – and then you’ll do it online, and they won’t get back to you!”
Multiple others of a similar age told The i Paper they were unwilling to talk about their own situation due to feeling “shame” from attending the Jobcentre seeking benefits or employment.
However, several agreed with Lara’s experience that jobs were hard to come by, and even harder to receive responses to applications for.
One woman in her thirties said she and her partner had recently moved in with her parents in Margate in an attempt to save on living costs; she was then laid off from her job days later.
Liz, a 65-year-old betting shop manager, was made redundant at the end of August.
“At the moment, I would do anything,” she said when asked what type of employment she was pursuing through the Jobcentre, adding that she “would rather use my redundancy money than go on benefits”.
“I don’t like being held to somebody,” she added.
Helen, an employment advisor at Social Enterprise Kent Margate, told The i Paper that the number of young people on benefits in Thanet was “absolutely” around what she expected it to be from her experience working with jobseekers aged 18 through to retirement – “and it is rising, which is a bit scary”.
She added that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, in her view, has been underestimated in its creation of a “forgotten generation”.
“A couple of years ago, we had a specific programme, funded by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which was just for people under 25,” Helen said.
“That’s where we realised that the pandemic had such a massive impact on everything from young people’s mental health and confidence to their lack of qualifications and ability to apply for jobs.
“All of that had a really huge impact – it has created a sort of forgotten generation – which few people seem to have picked up on.”
That, she said, is likely to be part of the reason behind Thanet’s high percentage of young UC claimants, with the nature of seasonal work in the seaside town another possible factor.
“It does surprise me that right into their thirties and forties, the percentage [of people in Thanet claiming UC] is still really high,” Helen said, adding that the frequency of redundancies even at “well-established companies” was “quite shocking”.
‘Break down the barriers to employment’, Government told
On the subject of benefits reform, Helen said any changes needed to involve being “more supportive of people in work”.
“I think there is a lot of scaremongering in the news, you know, attacking young people, saying they shouldn’t have this and they shouldn’t take benefits away from older generations,” she said.
“I don’t know what the answer is, otherwise, I’d be in government! But I do think we do need some kind of reform, and we need to be a bit more supportive of people in work.”
She continued: “There’s a whole group of people which I like to call the working poor – they’re too poor to survive properly, and they’re too ‘well off’ to claim benefits. They are just stuck in the middle.”
Andrew Connell, policy manager for The Salvation Army, told The i Paper that “to reduce the welfare bill, the focus should be on breaking down the barriers to secure employment with decent pay and making the benefit system the safety net it is intended to be”.
Connell added: “It’s wrong to see these figures as a measure of how many people don’t work because millions of people receiving universal credit have jobs. What we should be looking at is why so many people are in poverty despite universal credit and why so many jobs don’t pay enough to live on.
“Our foodbanks, homelessness services and debt and employment advice centres across the UK are full of people struggling to survive.”
That rings true for many of the Thanet residents The i Paper spoke to near the town’s Jobcentre. One woman, who declined to share her name, said the Government “is getting it wrong” with regards to the current benefits system, adding that her experience looking for work at the Jobcentre often felt like “a catch-22” situation.
Thanet District Council declined to comment on the TPA’s research, highlighting that the DWP manages universal credit while Kent County Council “takes the lead locally for post-16 education, skills and unemployment”.
A spokesperson for the DWP said: “Three-quarters of the increase in universal credit cases since July 2024 is driven by people moving from legacy benefits – a transition started by the previous government.
“Many people receiving universal credit are already in employment and our reforms will go further to tackle the perverse incentives that discourage work, and we’re investing £3.5bn in employment support for disabled people and people with long-term conditions.
“We’re putting work and opportunity at the heart of the system, and the final recommendations from the Timms and Milburn Reviews will lay the foundation for sustainable reform.”
Kent County Council did not respond to a request for comment.