Given that austerity didnt make it beneficial to work as opposed to choosing welfare clearly it didnt really exist in the first place so the question remains why bother working when welfare is a better option than average income jobs. Look at the current situation:
Vast swathes of the UK population have never worked for decades choosing welfare as the default option on leaving school. You could concurrently get housing benefit, a nice flat plus guaranteed tax free plethora of benefits. The so called welfare reforms havent changed that one iota. There are still millions of workless households in the UK.
Why is it that large sections of Central London e.g have generations of welfare claimants who have never worked in their life living in high value properties in high value areas such as Chelsea, Fulham, Westminster etc that a working family could never afford to live in. Is this the reward for working? So called austerity or welfare reform has not changed this if working people cant afford to live in Central London why should welfare claimants be living there, what a situation currently where hard work is punished yet laze is rewarded.
Until the caps came in it was commonplace in London for 100K rent bills being paid by the state for families to stay in mansions at taxpayer expense. The caps are way too high as people forget benefits are tax free and guaranteed to be paid out, why bother working when you can just sit at home and claim instead while watching TV all day.
Now Brexit is happening will those people on welfare who havent worked for decades suddenly do those jobs those pesky Eastern Europeans have stolen from them? Hmm I guess I not convinced wonder why!!
Disability benefits being claimed by people with e.g acne is still commonplace (DWP figures fyi) so have the reforms made any difference. Before you could just fill a claim form and bingo you got a nice cash bonus every 2 weeks with no cheques whatsoever. Now when checks were introduced a significant number didnt even bother going to their assessment as they knew the game was up.
So current situation on welfare you get
Rent paid free housing sometimes in Central London that working people cannot ever imagine to afford
No council tax
Tax free benefit buffet to choose from
Subsidised transport (not sure why when can sit at home all day watching tv)
Tax credits even though dont pay any tax - the paradox!
Labour promised them
Unlimited welfare
No checks to see if they can work
Free broadband
Free parking
Am surprised Labour didnt offer them free holidays, free flights, free clothes, free cars etc etc They clearly see them as their core voter base vs fools that work.
Clearly the claim of austerity has done nothing those on welfare know the system inside out such that any attempt to wrestle their cushty benefit cheque away from results in it being wrestled right back with the excuse of 'I have forgotten how to work' or 'work stresses me out' can you imagine it?
The Tories now have the mandate to make work pay. Get rid of this welfare nonsense and ensure that working families who do the right thing can live in nice parts of Central London, why should those who go down the welfare route get this privilege. There needs to be major slashing of the bloated benefit system that pays people a LOT of money to stay at home.