100,000 U.K. Welfare Recipients Make More Than Average Worker

Apparently, Britain is the place to live if you are lazy and would rather sit on your duff and collect welfare benefits. I think most people feel a sense of accomplishment and worth when they can bring home the proverbial bacon, but there are obviously some that would rather not put out any effort and expect the government to provide for them. In nanny states, like England, people come to expect the government to support them and it does. But something is drastically wrong when you can make more on welfare than you can working, which is apparently what 100,000 or so households are doing in the U.K.- making far more than their hardworking neighbours.

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They collect £30,899 before tax, while many workers can only aspire to an average wage of £23,422.

Meanwhile 50,000 of those households are entitled to more than £500 a week - which adds up to more than £26,000 a year.

No wonder Britain is almost bankrupt. At least there are some looking into the issue, since that's how they came to the realization in the first place that something is majorly broken in the whole British welfare system.

Officials at the Department for Work and Pensions highlighted the figures after the coalition pledged an overhaul of the welfare system to make work pay.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling 'Yet again we see more evidence for why reform is so desperately needed.

Reform is not going to be easy, however, because the people who have been supported by the government for so long are not going to take too kindly to suddenly having to earn a living after all those years. And it's not just those 100,000 people on the dole, there are around 700,000 households making over £15,000 a year in government benefits. What's even more startling is the fact that two million children are residing in homes where not one adult works. Then you have

At least 12 million working-age households receive benefits each week, including tax credits and Child Benefit, at a cost of around £85 billion per year.

According to Grayling, though 'We will make work pay so that the system is fair - fair for those who need a hand up and fair for the taxpayer who pays for it.'

Part of the blame can be placed on the government that punishes those on welfare that happen to be working part time, by docking their pay.

Punitive marginal tax rates often mean people are better off staying on welfare than finding part-time work, as they can lose up to 96p in the pound for any additional income.

The government is looking into changing this policy, however, if they want to wean people off welfare they will have to give these yobs some incentive to find supplemental income or get off welfare for good. But you certainly don't do it by making it easy for people to rob the system, which is what many of these people are doing. Granted, there are people who can truly use some assistance, but you have to help them help themselves, and you don't do that by indiscriminately giving them benefits. And they certainly should not be making more than your average Joe.

I have written about some of these welfare recipients with a zillion kids, living in exclusive, expensive mansions, all paid for with taxpayer monies. This is absolutely not fair. David Cameron has said he will try to remedy the problem however by limiting the amount of money for families on welfare to £400 a week for a four-bedroom house. This might save them some money, which they desperately need considering the Brit government is now spending £14 billion in housing benefits per year, up 40 percent over the last ten years.

I'm not saying that we should abandon those in need, let's just make sure they are truly needy and not just taking advantage of the system.