Dependency CultureThe welfare state

Dependency Culture
The welfare state was designed to provide for everyone and to create a safety net for the deserving poor and those who became temporarily unemployed or ill and could not work. Benefits were meted out on the basis that you paid into the system through taxes and National Insurance contributions, so that when you needed support the benefits system would ensure that you were looked after. However, by the time a couple of generations had passed and unemployment began to rise, increasing numbers of people became dependent on the State. By the 1980s a culture of dependency was identified. This always remained a highly contentious issue, but the perception seems to have developed through the US debate on the underclass (Wilson 1987; Jencks and Peterson 1990; Smith 1992). Loosely defined, ‘dependency culture’ refers to the permanently unemployed who start families having never worked. They are dependent on the State for housing and other benefit payments. Children living on some estates had parent(s) and, in some cases, grandparents who had never worked or were unemployed for most of their working lives:
‘Something of the estate life is built into them, they have no desire or inclination to change their lifestyles and do better. It’s a trap. Many young people are brought up to believe that the Wednesday dole cheque is like their wages. Instead of collecting their wages they collect their social. The kids expect the system, the government, to sort everything out for them. If they have a housing problem then the social should take care of it. If they have any other problems then the social should take care of them. They are kind of institutionalized into receiving benefits. Even though they don't live in an institution and have never lived in an institution, they are still institutionalized into a way of life.’ (Roy, male, aged 38; hostel)

People become children of the welfare state, growing up expecting that the State will provide; this is a form of institutionalization. It suggests that intergenerational poverty or dependency on the State exists, with some people growing up without a role model that goes out to work (Hoberaft 1998; Brown and Madge 1982). It was no longer within the remit of their culture to work for a living. Research into income trajectories showed that few people in the poorest tenth of the population escape poverty over time (Atkinson and Hills 1998: Jarvis and Jenkins 1997). Many of those living in local authority or housing association accommodation are amongst the poorest fifth of society. The ‘poverty trap’ was identified. People were trapped, unable to take employment when they wanted it, because they could not find work with wages high enough to compensate for the loss of benefits.