See, this bothers me a lot. I know a lot of people who live in Scotland (I'm in England) who love to brag how they pay £30 a more tax than people on a low income down South but it's fiiiiiiinnnnneeee because they're awesome and want to pay for people to have gibs.  When I was a low earner, I would sock away £30-£50 a month in change (anything below a £2 coin would go in my savings, and my current account would round up my DC spending to the nearest £ and dump it in my savings). That £360-£600 a year I saved made a huge difference to me in the long run. If I lived in Scotland I would get fuck all for that extra tax, AND lose money I could save for me, too. It's infuriating. I am all for helping those who genuinely cannot provide for themselves. For people so crippled, terminally ill, whatever that they cannot, and will never work, I think they should never have to fret on a roof over their heads or food on the table. But those people are in the tiny, tiny minority. If we stopped spending on useless, shiftless bastards, we could save a shitload of £££/$$$ AND STILL have plenty left over to help the genuinely destitute, ill and needy. Every society will always have those who genuinely cannot work, or those too ill. But they make a baw hair's worth of those claiming state benefits