Gary's views

UNDERCLASS

What are we going to do about the underclass? Not a very nice phrase, I know, but, in all its harshness, it seems to be the best one on offer.

I refer to the group of people out there who live outside or beneath any norms of behaviour that the majority of us respect. They do not work or pay taxes, they know every trick in the book to cheat the welfare system and they live in chaotic, ever-shifting households. They underachieve at school and then live on the margins of society for the rest of their lives. Alcohol and drugs are commonplace, as is having children in a plethora of short term relationships, then giving these kids no positive input, ensuring that the next generation terrorise the rest of us in the same way.

The leaders of an independent caring charity I met with last week surprised me by saying in effect that their patience was running thin with people who have no intention of living responsibly – looking after a flat or paying rent, but continue to expect the state to fund their disordered lifestyles. They were calling for a more robust approach from government to tackle this kind of welfare dependency. This point of view seems to be spreading amongst many good-hearted professionals who have spent their lives in the support sector. The pendulum is beginning to swing.

We do people no long term favours if we constantly pick up the tabs for them irrespective of how they live. I accept that many of the men and women who live in this netherworld ever had much of a chance in the first place. They never had any love or encouragement when they were small, no positive role models, no framework of stability. I also accept that they are of equal individual value to our creator as I am.

But that does not mean the state can carry on writing a blank cheque. Britain’s escalating underclass eats up the lion’s share of the welfare budget and commits most of our crime.

Apart from better education, zero tolerance and tougher welfare rules, it seems to me that early intervention is the key: to somehow intervene in the generational cycles that perpetuate the problem. It would be highly controversial to pluck more children from these households of chaos and place them with families who can nurture them properly, but is there any other way?

What do you think?