A new think tank analysis has found that the majority of Brits are reliant in some way on the state for their livelihoods.
The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) found that 52.1 per cent of British adults are recipients of universal credit, a state pension, work in the public sector, are students or higher education staff.
The ASI’s director of research, Sam Bidwell claims that the results show Britain is facing three major challenges:
“The state has made huge spending commitments and it is unclear how we will pay for them. The money will have to be raised from a pool of taxpayers which is already shrinking as millionaires leave and the population ages. The Government may have to hike our taxes even higher.”
“The private sector is being stifled and is finding it harder to create the jobs that we need. Thanks to the rapid expansion of the regulatory burden and increases to anti-business taxes such as employers’ National Insurance, fewer jobs are being created. This means that more and more Brits will have to rely on the state.”
“It’s hard for politicians to reduce the size of the state. Voters who rely on the state are less likely to support efforts to roll back the state and so politicians get the state more and more involved in the economy, creating a vicious cycle. “
He goes on to say that “we should not demonise those who rely on the state. After all, there are many reasons why someone is on Universal Credit, there are many pensioners who were productive taxpayers throughout their working lives, and there are many public sector workers who work hard in the national interest.
“But we have to wake up to the fact that n ever-shrinking pool of taxpayers is having to prop up the governments vast spending commitments”.
The report comes after the government announced major cuts to welfare spending on Tuesday, aiming to save £5 billion per year by making it harder to claim to benefits for less severe disabilities and mental health conditions and encouraging those who are able to work back into employment.
Sam goes on the say that these cuts are “some good first steps at tackling welfare dependency” in the UK, but calls for additional reforms to the “single largest item of welfare spending – the state pension”.
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative party responded to the findings, saying: “This index is an important contribution to the necessary work of rewiring the state. A culture of dependency has developed that goes beyond welfare to a bureaucratic class with so many talented people working in the unproductive parts of the public sector and working on compliance with government regulations in the private sector.
She goes on to argue that priority must be given to “innovative and productive work”, moving away from an “An increasing reliance on state subsidy and regulation” that is “holding back enterprise and growth.”
A government spokesperson for the Department of Work and Pensions told PoliticsUK: “To fix our broken social security system, we announced the largest welfare reforms in a generation – backed by a £1 billion investment – to support those who can work to do so while protecting those who cannot, putting welfare on a fairer, more sustainable footing, to unlock growth as part of the Plan for Change.
“This is on top of Get Britain Working White Paper which empowers mayors and local areas to join up local work, health, and skills support to tackle inactivity in their areas, delivers a Youth Guarantee so every young person is either earning or learning, and overhaul jobcentres across the country.”
The DWP also highlighted that “work will be unlocked for thousands of sick and disabled people” through Jobcentre reforms and the welfare package reforms, with the government aiming to hit an employment rate of 80 per cent.
