I spend my benefits chasing fame dream Bipolar wannabe refuses to get job despite doc saying he ’s fit to work
A WANNABE star has claimed £150,000 in benefits, while insisting the only job he is suitable for is fame.
James Alton, 30, says his bipolar disorder prevents him from keeping a regular job, although his doctor disagrees.
Yet a lack of paid work has not stopped celebrity-hungry James from following his dreams – funded by taxpayers’ cash.
In the past year he blew £7,650 of his £10,402 of benefits on trying to become a star. This included £1,000 on a manager, £1,000 on casting websites, £2,400 on new clothes and shoes and £1,000 on travel to hundreds of auditions.
James, stage name Jamesy, said: “I don’t care what people say, entertaining is what I was born to do.
Plonka
“At the moment performing is just a hobby but I believe I have what it takes to become a household name.
“People ask how I can make it to all my TV and stage auditions but I can’t make it to a job at Tesco or Asda but all I can say is that this is my calling.
“It makes me happy so why should I do a job that makes me depressed when I can do this instead?”
James claims he has clocked up eight hours of screen time in the past year as an extra or audience member in shows including Towie and E4’s Stage School.
He was spotted in his star suit walking through the holding room at Britain’s Got Talent, was on Big Brother’s Bit On The Side panel with Rylan Clark-Neal and had a non-speaking part as a prison inmate in The Hatton Garden Job, a film starring Larry Lamb. He has also auditioned six times for Big Brother.
He says he is to appear on two TV shows, on BBC Three and ITV. But he believes his alter ego, a character called Mrs Plonka, may give him his big break.
Each week James, who lives alone in a one-bedroom housing association flat in Derby, gets £200 in benefit – £75 a week housing benefit, £109.30 employment and support allowance and £15.75 enhanced disability premium – which he splurges on outlandish outfits and wigs and travel.
He said: “I have these crazy ideas. And I hope one day they will make me famous and I won’t have to rely on benefits any more but until then this is the only way I can afford to follow my dreams.
“I want to get on TV and entertain the nation. You have to look good on camera so obviously I’m buying a new flash outfit at £100 a time at least once a month.
“And I’ve even bought little business cards, which were quite expensive.”
He said the mood swings caused by his bipolar disorder makes it hard to make friends and he has had no relationship for six years.
But a letter from James’ doctor to the Derby benefits office said: “Mr Alton’s presentation does not fit the criteria for a classic bipolar illness and at most, it is bipolar type 3 which is just a spectrum disorder rather than an illness.”
He added there should be “no hindrance” to for him to pursue whatever profession he chooses. Yet James has not worked full-time for over ten years.
He said: “I’d love to keep a full time job but I am bipolar, you can’t take that away from me. I get a lot of stick about it, people think being bipolar isn’t a real diagnosis.
“I can’t explain it but I am just doing what makes me feel good. If I get my full- time break I’d love to come off benefits – so let’s hope I make it.”
James added: “The medication I take at night makes it hard to get up early in the morning. I don’t feel guilty receiving the benefits I get.”
A DWP spokesman said: “Claimants are expected to do everything they can to find work if they are able to, in return for their benefits.”