A young man says he has applied for more than 1,000 jobs - but is still stuck on the dole.

Despairing Nicholas Peters, 21, left school at 16 with a handful of GCSEs before getting a job as a cleaner at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

The former North School pupil said: “I had to quit that job when I moved up to Manchester with my girlfriend and got a job cleaning at a cinema. But then everything went wrong and I moved back to Ashford to live with my parents.

“Since then I’ve been unemployed and haven’t been able to get a job for about 26 months.

“I’ve been for all sorts – cleaning, warehouse work, farming, shop work; I’ve had a couple of interviews and never heard anything back and other times I just get nothing.”

Now Mr Peters, his partner and their five-week-old daughter are struggling to live on just £105 a week.

Mr Peters, of Firs Close, Folkestone, added: “I’d like to do motor mechanics but really I want a job doing anything. I want to be able to support my daughter.

“What is the world coming to when a British man can’t get a job in his own country? I am struggling financially. I’m a very hard worker and will do anything as long as I’m bringing home a wage to support my partner and daughter.

"what is the world coming to when a british man can't get a job in his own country…?” – nicholas peters

“I’ve applied for jobs everywhere – Folkestone, Canterbury, Dover, Ashford. I went for one job in Canterbury to do fruit picking and didn’t get it because they told me I needed to speak Polish.”

The latest unemployment figures for January show a sharp rise in people joining the dole queue.

There were 37,713 people on Jobseekers Allowance across the county at the start of this year.

In Shepway the figure stood at 2,833 while in Ashford the total was 2,036.