Conservative thinkers have debated the structural incompatibility between liberal principles and welfare state principles. Certain sectors of society have argued that the welfare state creates a disincentive for working and investment. Also suggesting that the welfare state at times does not eliminate the causes of individual contingencies and needs. Economically, the net losers of the welfare state are often more against its values and role within society. In 2010, the
Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government led by
David Cameron argued for a reduction of welfare spending in the United Kingdom as part of their
programme of austerity. Government ministers have argued that a growing culture of
welfare dependency is perpetuating welfare spending, and claim that a cultural change is required to reduce the welfare bill. Public opinion in the UK appears to support a reduction in welfare spending, however commentators have suggested that negative public perceptions are founded on exaggerated assumptions about the proportion of spending on
unemployment benefit and the level of
benefit fraud. Figures from the
Department for Work and Pensions show that benefit fraud is thought to have cost taxpayers £1.2 billion during 2012–13, up 9% on the year before. This was lower than the £1.5 billion of benefit underpayment due to error. In some cases, relatives who bring up a child when the parents cannot bring up the child face sanctions and financial penalties, they can be left poor and homeless. There are also widespread complaints from church groups and others that the UK welfare state does insufficient work to prevent
poverty, deprivation and even
hunger. In 2018,
food bank usage in the UK reached its highest point on record, with the UK's main food bank provider,
The Trussell Trust, stating that welfare benefits do not cover basic living costs. The Trussell Trust's figures showed that 1,332,952 three-day emergency food supplies were delivered to people from March 2017 to March 2018. This represented a 13% increase from the previous year. In 2018 support for raising taxes to finance more provision on health, education and social benefits was the highest it had been since 2002 according to
NatCen Social Research. Two-thirds of Labour supporters favoured tax rises and 53% of Conservatives also favoured that. In 2018 the
House of Commons library estimated that by 2021, £37bn less would be spent on working-age social security than in 2010. Cuts to
disability benefits,
Personal Independence Payments (PIP) and
employment and support allowance (ESA) are noteworthy, they will have fallen by 10%, since 2010. Over half of families with income below the breadline include at least one person with a disability. There are also cuts to
tax credits
Universal Credit child benefit disability benefits ESA and
incapacity benefit and
housing benefit. Alison Garnham of the
Child Poverty Action Group said, "Cuts and freezes have taken family budgets to the bone as costs rise and there is more pain to come as the two-child limit for tax credits and universal credit, the bedroom tax, the benefit cap and the rollout of universal credit push families deeper into poverty." Numerous negative consequences have been attributed to benefit sanctions imposed by the
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the
UK Government department that runs the welfare state in the UK. These include "increased debt and rent arrears, food poverty, crime and worsening physical and
mental health. Statistics indicate that in the period of 2011 to 2015 benefit sanctions on people with mental health problems increased by 668%. 19,259 people with mental health problems had benefits stopped in the period of 2014 to 2015, compared to 2,507 people in the period of 2011 to 2012. In 2020, the UK Government admitted that it had made no assessment of the impact that benefit sanctions made on mental health. At the same point in time the Government also refused to assess the impact benefit sanctions have on people's mental health, which came after repeated warnings on the long-term damage they can cause to people that use the welfare state and to these people's families. Also in 2020, it was reported that at least 69 suicides were linked to the DWP's handling of benefit claims. The National Audit Office (NAO) said the actual number of deaths linked to claims could be much higher than this. It was also reported that the DWP were not looking into information from coroners or families, nor investigating all the reports of suicide made aware to it. In the same year the DWP were accused of a "cover-up" due to destroying approximately 50 reports connected to benefits being stopped. Officials blamed data protection laws for the actions, though the data watchdog denied there was any requirement to destroy the documents by any date. In March 2022, an academic study into whether benefit sanctions are linked to claimant ill-health, including mental illness and suicide was stopped after the DWP and Government ministers refused to release their recorded data on sanctions. From a contemporary perspective, in practice, social welfare in the United Kingdom is very different from the ideal version of the welfare state that people may carry. Coverage is extensive, but benefits and services are delivered at a low level. The social protection provided is patchy, and services are tightly rationed." This opinion appears to be growing in popularity amongst the general population of the UK. This argument does stand when you compare certain statistics with some of Europe's biggest nations. The UK has tax revenue, as a share of GDP, of 35.3%. This compares with France's 45.6%, Germany's 40.3%, and Italy's 41.7%. It was also found, in a 2021 study by The Health Foundation, that Britain spends the 6th most money on health care amongst "developed countries." This figure sits below the EU average and explains why some believe the welfare state is not so successful. It is also a fact that "The UK dedicates roughly one-fifth of its GDP to social spending. That places us 17th – roughly in the middle – of OECD countries" (Whiteford, 2022). Over the course of the
COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that there was a distinct shortage of provisions available to support public health, including a lack of beds in the NHS and a lack of
personal protective equipment (PPE). In the closing statement of the British Medical Association (BMA) in July 2023, it was noted that this lack of pandemic preparedness manifested in four key areas; failure to protect healthcare workers, lack of capacity and resources, failings of the test and trace system, and failings in government structures and processes. The statement also claimed that the "UK was bottom of the table on numbers of doctors, nurses, beds, intensive care units, respirators and ventilators", During the COVID-19 crisis, food insecurity impacted 16% of the population, and some critics argue that government food aid was instigated too late for the elderly and vulnerable. There have also been criticisms of the food parcels given, as reports stated that the parcels lacked nutritional food and instead contained an abundance of processed foods. ==Historical statistics on welfare trends==