Jumping in late here but I think it IS a significant problem, and I don't know how to overcome it, when you have a "welfare cycle" where two or three generations have been brought up on benefits and you have kids who have not lived in a household or seen an adult regularly get up and go out to work. Under those circumstances it will be very hard to convince kids that they can and should get an education and go out and make their place in the world, earning their own keep. I want the safety net to be there, and wish that we in the US had a better one, but it should be just that - a safety net and not a way of life. The way it worked for Jacqui C is the way it's supposed to work - helping people to get on their feet after a rough patch. It isn't being used in the right way when it just becomes a rut where people make a lifestyle of living off benefits.   The issue now, where housing is so expensive that there's almost no point in seeking a low paying job because you won't be able to afford to live anywhere, complicates things even more.