Majority of British Adults Rely on State for Their Income – Guido Fawkes

Majority of British Adults Rely on State for Their Income

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The Adam Smith Institute has unveiled its new State Dependence Index, revealing that a staggering 52.1% of Britons over 18 years old now rely on the state for their income in some form. That includes 23% on state pensions, 12% receiving universal credit, 11% working in the public sector, and the rest as higher education students or teachers. That’s over 28 million people dependent on the state, marking a 0.8% increase since 2022…

In other words, fewer than 48% of private-sector workers are carrying the burden through taxes. Meanwhile, Reeves’ budget and Rayner’s Employment Rights Bill are hammering businesses, shrinking job vacancies, and pushing more people into state dependence. The ASI’s Sam Bidwell warns the trend will only worsen as Labour “stifles” the private sector. Kemi Badenoch slammed the findings:

“This index is an important contribution to the necessary work of rewiring the state. A culture of dependency has developed that goes beyond welfare to a bureaucratic class with so many talented people working in the unproductive parts of the public sector and working on compliance with government regulations in the private sector. An increasing reliance on state subsidy and regulation is holding back enterprise and growth.”

Labour are pushing their “party of work” message, with their welfare reforms cutting personal income payments for over a million people, yet they’ve offered no real explanation for where the promised £5 billion in savings will come from. Pat McFadden is vowing to cut the bloated civil service, and now the Treasury is briefing Reeves’s Spring Statement will include the biggest spending cuts since austerity, with Whitehall budgets set to shrink by billions more than expected. Though as this latest report shows, state dependence is a far tougher problem to fix…