More than half of British adults are reliant on the state to make ends meet, a study suggests, amid a growing ‘culture of dependency’.
This includes nearly one in four adults – or 12.6million – whose livelihood is dependent on the state pension, researchers found.
Overall, 52 per cent were found to rely directly or indirectly on the expanding public sector.
There are 6.3million (12 per cent) who depend on Universal Credit.
Meanwhile, 5.9million (11 per cent) are employed by the public sector, and nearly 3million young adults (5 per cent) are students who rely on taxpayer-funded loans and grants.
Researchers from the Adam Smith Institute also included employees in human resources and the planning sectors in their State Reliance Index.
The number of these roles has exploded in recent months due to new red tape introduced by Labour.
They made up a further 160,000 adults (0.3 per cent) reliant on the state, according to the think-tank.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the study was further proof that the state needs ‘rewiring’ after Labour’s overhaul of the welfare system.
She said: ‘This index is an important contribution to the necessary work of rewiring the state.
‘A culture of dependency has developed that goes beyond welfare to a bureaucratic class with so many talented people working in the unproductive parts of the public sector and on compliance with government regulations in the private sector.
‘An increasing reliance on state subsidy and regulation is holding back enterprise and growth.
She added that the Adam Smith Institute’s data ‘makes the case for fundamental reforms that will redirect the talents of the British people – away from stifling bureaucracy and into innovative and productive work’.
The study says an explosion in regulatory bodies has created a ‘class of professionals’ whose roles are reliant on growth-destroying bureaucracy.
It points to the human resources sector, where jobs have increased four times faster than overall workforce growth in the UK.
Sam Bidwell, the author of the report, said: ‘The results from the State Reliance Index are astonishing, but hardly surprising.
‘They are the inevitable result of decades of government meddling in the economy and our lives.
‘Worse still, considering that some private sector jobs are subsidised by the state, the true number of those who are in some way reliant on the state is likely to be higher.
‘We have to wake up to the fact that an ever-shrinking pool of taxpayers is having to prop up the Government’s vast spending commitments. This is completely unsustainable.’
It comes after a House of Lords report warned earlier this year that Britain’s soaring benefits bill is down to a flawed welfare system.
Peers said claimants are currently ‘incentivised’ to declare themselves long-term sick, with the potential to double their income.
