Even a global pandemic that forced millions onto welfare didn't make the public more supportive of government benefits.
April 1, 2026
Original Paper
Solidarity in a crisis? Trends in attitudes to benefits during COVID-19
SocArXiv · s3vdm_v1
The Takeaway
One would expect a shared crisis to increase empathy and support for safety nets. However, data shows attitudes barely budged because the public treated COVID-claims as a 'one-time' exception rather than rethinking their view of the typical welfare recipient.
From the abstract
There were good reasons to think COVID-19 would increase public support for welfare: it was a time of apparent increased solidarity in the face of a collective crisis; of clearly ‘deserving’ claimants; and of increases in direct experiences of the benefits system. And yet, the limited evidence collected so far suggests that attitudes have not changed. In this report, we explain this puzzle in the UK, using two datasets which are uniquely suited to the challenge: (i) bimonthly data collected by