Nearly 300,000 heroin and crack cocaine users in England are claiming state benefits, British researchers have found.

A report published by the Department of Work and Pensions outlines results from a study conducted by University of Bath's Dr Linda Bauld and University of Glasgow's Dr Gordon Hay.

They found the total number of problematic drug users in England accessing the Government's main benefits in 2006 was around 270,000 - more than 6 per cent of the total number of working age individuals on benefits.

This compares with 1.1 per cent of the total working age population in England estimated to be problematic drug users - those who use heroin and/or crack cocaine.

The researchers found the proportion was greater for younger age groups, with around 7.4 per cent of claimants under 25 years being problematic drug users.

The study found that the majority of drug users accessing benefits are male (76 per cent) and that there was regional variation, with the highest prevalence being in London.

Dr Bauld, from University of Bath'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."

The breakdown of problematic drug users claiming individual benefits are as follows:
Jobseekers' Allowance - 66,000 (8.2 per cent)
Income Support - 146,000 (8.1 per cent)
Incapacity Benefit - 87,000 (4.4 per cent)
Disability Living Allowance - 25,000 (1.9 per cent)

For the individual benefits it should be noted that individuals can be on more than one benefit at a time and so the numbers cannot simply be added together to provide a combined figure. So, for example, the income support group will include people also claiming incapacity benefit.