I’m all for #social #welfare. It’s only right that a state looks after its poor, sick, elderly and disadvantaged, as well as those individuals who find themselves temporarily homeless after losing their jobs during a recession. Nobody who is ill should be turned away from a hospital, no child should go without food or clothing and no one should be forced to sleep in a cardboard box under a bridge. #Britain has a well-deserved reputation of being one of the world’s most compassionate nations with a comprehensive #welfare system costing almost 22 per cent of GDP.

Its seeds were sewn in the early 20th century by two Welshmen Prime Minister David Lloyd George and a former Minister of Health Aneurin Bevan who established the National Health Service. It truly started to blossom during the idealistic post-World War II period, infused by public will to forge a new and fair society. “We have been the dreamers, we have been the sufferers; now we are the builders,” said Bevan in 1945.

However, in recent decades idealism has been replaced by scepticism, largely due to the high numbers of people who wilfully abuse the system. I’m reminded about this shocking drainage of #Britain’s #coffers during my summer vacations in the UK. Whenever the topic is brought up by my British friends, I find that they all know someone who has lived off the taxpayers throughout their entire lives or who collects a long term disability allowance when there is nothing wrong with them.

This unfortunate situation was aptly illustrated by a report in the Daily Telegraph earlier this week highlighting a fraudster who had claimed over £11,000 in disability allowances claiming he was unable to walk more than 18 yards. His free ride came to an end when he was discovered, by undercover officers, playing football for a local soccer league.

#Britain’s commitment to eradicate homelessness has also been exploited with some unemployed or low-paid households receiving over £100,000 annually in housing allowances, which is substantially more than most hard-working middle-class families pay for rental accommodation or mortgages. It’s little wonder that the country’s housing benefit bill has jumped from £14 billion to £21 billion over the last decade which is more than the UK spends on its universities and police force combined. The Daily Mail has exposed a family that comprises three generations of adult #welfare cheats none of whom has ever had a job. They live in a three-bedroom house and receive benefits amounting to £32,000 a year but they are far from happy because they feel they deserve a council house with 10 bedrooms.

Incredibly, for more than six million Britons, receiving benefits is a comfortable way of life. It’s paradoxical that what began as a system based on a fair distribution of wealth to safeguard the poorest has become grotesquely unfair to people who faithfully wake up early each day to commute to work. Those enjoying a benefits lifestyle have no incentive to find employment while those with their noses to the grindstone may earn decent salaries but find that, after tax and national insurance contributions, they have less in their pockets than their supposed ‘poor’ neighbours on #welfare.

Given the UK’s record of generous and often undeserved handouts, it’s unsurprising that it has gained a worldwide reputation for being a gravy train. The fact that #Britain is beset by millions of economic migrants trying to beat down its doors enrages quite a few of my friends.

#Britain is bound by human rights laws and treaties to consider letting in genuine asylum seekers who fear for their lives in their homelands as well as those who have been subjected to torture as per its international quota. But, here again, the system is being abused by economic migrants masquerading as legitimate asylum seekers. I find it astonishing that a judge who said “hundreds of thousands of immigrants” head to the UK for its #welfare payments has been asked to appear before a disciplinary inquiry merely for speaking the truth. Immigrants now constitute a ninth of the country’s population while there are untold numbers of failed asylum seekers in hiding who, because they do not qualify for benefits, often turn to crime.

This does not mean to say that immigrants haven’t made great contributions to the UK’s economy and its diverse culture. Indeed, in the 1950’s and 1960’s, #Britain actively encouraged immigrants from the Caribbean, the Subcontinent and Africa to work in hospitals, railways and on the buses - jobs Britons were reluctant to fill. But nowadays when there is an influx of workers from EU member countries, who have the right to work in the UK under the Treaty, the country cannot afford to absorb large numbers of immigrants from outside the European Union. Moreover, the immigration wave that #Britain has experienced over the last 10 years is not only creating #social unrest but is also fomenting bigotry and racism among Britons who understandably feel they are being swamped.

I know that many of my British friends will be delighted with the resolve of their new coalition government to reduce home-grown #welfare cheats and put a cap on immigration.

As part of the coalition’s recently disclosed emergency budget, those in need of housing allowances will receive a maximum of £400 weekly instead of the current maximum of £103,000 paid to families with two children in the London area. At the same time, anyone seeking disability payments will be required to undergo frequent and thorough medical examinations. Sadly, some families genuinely experiencing hardship may fall through the cracks of these new rules. However, for that, blame should be heaped upon the greedy cheaters whose selfishness has forced the government to make such cut-backs.

My honest hardworking friends will also be pleased to note that #Britain’s new Home Secretary Theresa May has announced an immediate temporary cap on non-EU foreigners allowed into the country to include no more than 19,000 “general skilled workers”. A more permanent cap will be introduced next April.

It’s an excellent start but is it enough when #Britain’s public debt is over £952 billion and rising fast due to the accrual of high interest rates?

As far as I’m concerned, anyone who is caught stealing from taxpayers or who concocts a sob story to con their way into the country for handouts and free housing should be measured for an army uniform and shipped off to Afghanistan. During the threat of a double-dip recession ever present, the tricksters and the layabouts deserve to be taught an important lesson. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.