from yesterday's guardian ....

'The perception of people on benefits as "scroungers" is as deep-rooted as ever, while there is broad public tolerance of the wealthy even in a recession, research has found.

A report published today by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and the Fabian Society says that despite government antipoverty drives, most people believe high incomes are fair and based on effort, while people on low incomes largely deserve to be poor. The financial crisis has produced greater distaste for the "super rich" but has had no impact on wider attitudes to the income gap between rich and poor, the report claims. Echoing the Victorian concept of the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, negative perceptions of benefit claimants were countered by strong sympathy for the working poor and for groups such as carers.'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jun/22/benefits-income-poverty-fabian-rowntree