The central argument of The Welfare Trait by Adam Perkins, an expert in the neurobiology of personality, is that the welfare state causes a proliferation of adults with ‘employment-resistant’ personalities, at great cost to society and the economy.
The logic goes like this: People who claim welfare score lower on measures of personality like agreeableness and conscientiousness. These personality traits mean they are less likely to work. Workless families have more children, and pass these personality traits on to them. The population as a whole becomes more and more ‘employment-resistant’, driving up welfare bills over time.
Worried? You shouldn’t be. Here are some facts, taken not from Perkins’ book, but from official statistics:
- The United Kingdom’s employment rate among 16-64-year-olds is the highest it has been since records began in 1971.
- The proportion of the population claiming out of work benefits is at its lowest since comparable records began in 1999.
- The proportion of 16-24-year-olds not in education or training has been steadily falling over the last five years and is lower than it was 10 years ago.
- The proportion of workless households in the UK has dropped by over a quarter since the mid-1990s
- The proportion of children living in workless households in the UK has dropped by 40 per cent over the same time period.
So how has the author come to the conclusion that we have a problem with ‘welfare-induced proliferation of employment-resistant personalities’ costing us £1.2bn a year? Unfortunately, the book frequently appears to conflate claiming of welfare with worklessness. The paper that Perkins relies on to show how an increase in generosity of welfare in 1999 led to more births is based on a study of low-income families, among whom the most significant increase in generosity was for those who had at least one adult in work. Contrary to popular belief, much welfare spending in the UK goes towards topping up earnings of those who are in low-paid work – people who would not appear to fit the description of ‘employment-resistant’.
I am convinced of Perkins’ point that disadvantaged children have dimmer educational and employment prospects. His story of how high quality preschool and early years care equips children with the character development they need to succeed later on in life is an important one and for me is the main policy lesson of the book. Exploring what constitutes high quality care, and what can be learnt from research on personality to improve services, would be a valuable exercise.
But attempting to make a link to welfare policy is a step too far. A book that promises to explain why government needs to reform welfare should at least be capable of diagnosing a problem that actually exists and that is worth worrying about. But in all the main data we have on trends in work and worklessness in the UK, there is little sign of the growth in employment resistance that the author fears so much.
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Nida Broughton is chief economist at Social Market Foundation
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The Welfare Trait: How State Benefits Affect Personality
Adam Perkins
Palgrave Macmillan | 212pp | £63