Welfare state makes people lazy says Mayor aide

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Anthony Browne, who is to become the Mayor's policy director next month, said the safety net of the welfare state made people reluctant to get a job or look after children or the elderly.

Mr Browne said there was now "extreme solipsism", which meant people were abandoning their duties and responsibilities.

In an essay for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the head of the Policy Exchange think-tank said there was no "magic bullet" for the problems but individuals thinking they had the right, for example, to get drunk on the Tube, was "corrosive to society".

He said: "There have been improvements but also an unprecedented, unsettling decline. Each age has been concerned about moral decline. Ours is no exception - although a lot of what is happening now is exceptional."

One of the Mayor's first acts was to ban drinking alcohol on the Tube.

Mr Browne said there were now 101,300 drug addicts and alcoholics living on incapacity benefit - equivalent in size to the Army.

He said the "decline of individual responsibility" was central. "Perhaps most corrosive of all is the welfare culture, from the benefits system to social housing. It exists to fight destitution but it has unfortunately led to mass dependency, with people expecting the state to look after them, rather than state support being a last resort safety net."