Analysis of people’s views on benefits by a leading social policy expert at the University has contributed to an annual snapshot of British attitudes.
Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby analysed the data and wrote the chapter on welfare and benefits for the 32nd NatCen British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey, published on 26 March.
The BSA report examines how the public has responded to the changing political landscape and to the policies of the Coalition Government.
Professor Taylor-Gooby’s analysis of the data highlighted that political party differences are opening out. Conservatives are strongly anti-welfare, Liberal Democrats more moderately so and Labour give grudging support to the poor.
Five times as many Conservative voters thought unemployment benefits too high, compared with the number who thought them too low. For Liberal Democrats one and a half times as many think they are too high. Labour voters are evenly split. Only eight per cent of Conservative voters put benefits for unemployed people as their top priority. Labour voters gave higher support at 16 per cent, with Liberal Democrats at 13 per cent.
Big majorities among all main parties support the benefits cap: 85 per cent of Conservative and UKIP supporters, 75 per cent of Liberal democrats, 70 per cent of Labour voters and just over half of Greens.
However support for more spending on single parents, children and unemployed people, and on welfare in general, is on the increase after five years of falling support for welfare, with Labour voters leading on this.
The annual BSA survey, which is published by independent social research agency NatCen, asks around 3,000 people what it is like to live in Britain and what they think about how the country is run. The survey is regarded as a critical gauge of public opinion.
Peter Taylor-Gooby is Professor of Social Policy within the University’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research.