Why Britain has a unique problem with economic inactivity

FEW SUBJECTS whip up the tabloids as much as welfare claimants—supposedly an army of shirkers is out to cheat honest taxpayers. A recent academic study of the popular press, from the late 1990s to the 2010s, found coverage of welfare had been almost universally negative. Not coincidentally, politicians have long understood that talk of “crackdowns” on welfare, though not on the state pension, may be a vote winner. Conservative strategists often sought to make benefit terms a defining issue, putting Labour on the wrong side of public opinion.