One truism among George Osborne and his team is that “you can never be too tough on welfare”. But after three years of benefit cuts, the new (and always fascinating) British Social Attitudes report shows that support for the welfare state and sympathy for the unemployed is rising.
The number of people agreeing that benefits for the jobless are “too high and discourage work” fell from a high of 62% in 2011 to 51% in 2012. There has also been a five point increase in the number (47%) who believe that cutting benefits “would damage too many people’s lives”. In addition, 34% support spending more on social security even if it means higher taxes, up from 28% in 2011. The proportion who believe that the unemployed could find work if they really wanted to, has fallen from 68% in 2008 to 54%. It does appear, as the survey’s organisers suggest, that austerity is “beginning to soften the public mood” although it’s also possible that the coalition’s welfare reforms (such as the benefit cap) have increased confidence in the system.
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