Well said Steve - I paid national insurance and taxes for over 50 years and only claimed unemployment benefit for a short while after my job was declared redundant. (I blame Thatcher for that as I was at the time a full time union official) I now, approaching 70, have no guilt about claiming DLA and driving my Motability Car as I believe I have more than paid for them. I would gladly swap my pain and discomfort (and the car) with some of those who call me a scrounger, in exchange for their good health and a job which I could go to every day.
I have no doubt that there are a small number of benefit cheats, but suggest that no matter what system was introduced the situation would be the same..
In the 1960's I worked for the National Assistance Board which then became the Ministry of Social Security, and could write a book on how devious, and clever, a small minority of those people were in working the system.