Social security spending out of control?

[Wizeman]

The UK spends about £334 billion on social security. Around £177 billion of that goes on pensions, which as a young person I’d definitely want when I’m older — especially if I’ve worked all my life and paid into the system. What I don’t understand is why some younger people are against older people getting a pension, because one day they’ll want one too.

About £145 billion goes towards working-age benefits, which is a massive amount of money. Around £76 billion of that is for disabled people, which I think is fair and necessary. But you hear so many stories about people taking advantage of the system, and a lot of those stories turn out to be true.

They say about 1 in 3 people in Britain are on some kind of benefit. I’ve personally been in hospital with serious injuries and had operations that put me out of work for months, and it never crossed my mind to claim benefits. I’ve also been out of work for about a year before while working towards getting a new job, and I just lived off my savings.

That said, I’ll be honest — I’ve always had support from my parents, like being able to stay at their house. I know not everyone has that kind of support.

But it does feel like fewer people want to work and some would rather claim benefits.
I also don’t think removing the two-child benefit cap will really solve the problem.
In Poland, for example, people get tax breaks for having kids, which encourages people to work.

Either way, £334 billion just sounds like an insane amount of money to me.

Wages have gone up, but inflation has gone up faster.

Check out Fig 2.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/averageweeklyearningsingreatbritain/august2025

What progress?

Yep, trend line would show increase.

I don't think it is progress. I have read on mumsnet and in the press how life is so much better now whenever anyone suggests we return to how things used to be.

It's a double edged sword. Some things are better/improved, some things are worse. I don't think people, on the whole, are happier though, certainly not amongst my friends, family, colleagues, clients etc - there's quite a lot of disappointment, despondency, sadness, etc about the way things are going.

I know for a fact that people don't have the same enthusiasm, optimism, etc that we all seemed to have back in the 70s and 80s. Things weren't perfect back then, but people did seem to be optimistic that things would get better with all the tech advances, women's rights, etc., but just when one thing is improved/solved, you seem to get hit by something else getting worse.

We do seem to be "one step forward, two steps back" these days.

What do you mean when you state "Progress hasn't helped many people."?

'Britain of old' again? What period of time?

Last half century. Generally speaking the standard of living of an average working person has declined each decade. Whilst the benefit class has increased both monetarily and in numbers.

Previously those that worked could survive comfortably whilst those that didn't really struggled. That discrepancy has evaporated, which is a massive problem if we need a resilient workforce. Otherwise who is paying?

You prefer to let people struggle?

If they aren't prepared to apply themselves then yes. Carrot or stick approach

Also with the sheer increase in numbers, it’s completely not sustainable. I don’t think it will be like this for much longer- there’s an increased anger and resentment against it and so the next party that gets in is very likely to overhaul it

And what happens then?

Benefit bashing is easy

Nail on the head. You know something's gone wrong when the non workers are having an equal or better quality of life than the workers.

Do they?

Then you know what to do.

I don’t know what happens. Both Conservatives and Reform have said they will be tackling it.

Stating facts about the numbers isn’t benefit bashing. Open conversations need to be had. 24.3m people claimed income support benefits or pensions in 2025. 51% of families in the U.K. receive state support. The numbers are increasing every day - the latest stat I saw was 1000 people being approved for PIP every day. I don’t know how the working population can sustain this

Action rather than talk as per this forum.

Many people on PIP are part of the working population

Well you talk a lot for sure

Last half century, which years do you mean with that?

The main parties have been promising to tackle it for a decade or two (or three). The problem with benefits "Lifestyle" has been apparent and growing since the 80s and 90s. Yes, some minor changes have been made, but nowhere near enough - just tinkering around the edges.

There was a big problem in the early 80s, when I left school. Lots of my school friends claimed unemployment benefits in the Summer school holidays claiming they weren't returning to school/college. Of course, they did go back and stopped claiming after the Summer! Some even went a step further and "engineered" a fall out with their parents to get a state paid flat for the Summer, which of course, they handed back when school/college started and they came off benefits again - funny how they "made up" with their parents at the end of the school holidays when they were no long eligible for their freebie flat! At least the government of the day put a stop to that abuse, but it does show that there was benefits abuse 40+ years ago. My boyfriend of the time did exactly that - he fully "enjoyed" his flat for nearly two months, but at the same time, he was taking his washing home for his Mum to wash and iron, going there for his meals etc - hardly a "falling out" - he just wanted a flat to use for his "fun"! I ditched him during that period as I was aghast at his blatant greed and abuse - he was a "taker" in lots of other ways too which soon became apparent during the few weeks I was dating him!

I was talking approximately. 50 years or so.

So mid 70's

Yeah that was a great time for employment and social issues

@Smeuse only 17% are in work. It’s not a judgement. I just think there will be a big backlash against this (it’s already starting) and at the next election parties will be centring welfare reform in their manifesto. They’re already pledging to

I am aware of the backlash and the promises from the likes of Reform and Conservatives, as I said benefit bashing is easy.

pressed post too early

Benefit bashing is easy, providing solutions to help people off benefits are not. Especially as many services have been scrapped, remember austerity

Bearing in mind the working age population is only 43 m people, and more than 10 million of those are not in work. That’s 33 m paying ever increasing taxes supporting more than 20 m people. How do you make those numbers work? With an increase of 1000 a day of PIP claimants on top of this?

But then the young didn't just opt out did they. They confronted unemployment head on and had to be resourceful