I'm throwing everything at it': one young man's search for a job in Britain's worklessness capital'

Cohen, 19, prepares for holiday photos in Cleethorpes while wearing an Easter bunny outfit for his mascot business. He lives with his parents in nearby Grimsby and created Co Co Mascots last year to find work. He takes paid gigs for birthday parties, events, and children’s doorstep surprises, and he wants a permanent job. He has a learning disability and has applied for roles across holiday parks, retail, charity shops, and even Grimsby Town FC, including a mascot position. He volunteers at a Scope charity shop and begins a college placement at Morrisons. He has not yet found paid work beyond mascot gigs, and he feels demoralized by local rhetoric about worklessness. Grimsby has been described as having high benefit claims and has seen retail decline.

"Cohen isn't fazed. He is hoping we can take some new photographs that he can use to advertise his mascot business for the upcoming holidays. Cohen, 19, lives with his parents a couple of miles down the road in neighbouring Grimsby and set up Co Co Mascots last year as one of his many attempts to find work. People can hire him in one of the outfits for birthday parties, events and doorstep surprises for children. He's done a few paid gigs so far, which has been a boost for his confidence, he says, but what he really wants is a permanent job."

"For the past year, Cohen, who has a learning disability, has been applying for roles in holiday parks, retail, charity shops and even the local football club Grimsby Town FC, which was recruiting for a new mascot. He is volunteering at a local Scope charity shop once or twice a week and is starting a placement through college working at Morrisons. He has yet to find paid work, though not for want of trying."

"Retail was a big thing for a lot of people [here in Grimsby] at one point, he says. But a lot of its closing down now. It's now made up of vape shops and barbers and not ones where you can get a job. The coastal town of Grimsby was recently dubbed Britain's worklessness capital by the Telegraph due to the large proportion of its working-age people claiming benefits."

"Much of this rhetoric feels demoralising for Cohen, who says he is throwing everything at this. Once one of the world's largest fishing ports, Grimsby is still the UK's biggest fish-processing hub, reportedly making every other fish finger eaten across the country."

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