Benefit Cheats NOT Scum Shock

An antidote to all the hang 'em, flog 'em screeching often found in the Daily Mail and The BBC News' 'Have Your Say' message boards, perhaps?

People who work and claim benefits do so often because they are in dire financial trouble, a Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) study has said.

The JRF study was based on six years of work by the East London Community Links project.

It found that people working and claiming benefits did so out of "need not greed".

Despite the introduction of tax credits, designed to supplement the incomes of the low-paid, many people in the study said they felt the system trapped them in a poverty cycle.

In short, the tax and benefits system provided these people with few financial incentives to give up benefits and declare paid work.