BandOnTheRun - I have to agree with you.
Lots of the local brothers and sisters claim welfare, often so they can work less so they can pioneer (!?) It's frowned upon, and supposedly doesn't go on, but many elders do. The very co-ordinator that told me I had to work for everything, had himself worked the system out so that he didn't work - supposedly was looking for work, for years.
In the last days of my pioneering, I did claim welfare, because I couldn't afford to eat. When I stopped pioneering, the stress had made me very ill, so welfare have granted me various provisions at times. My lack of education, means I don't earn much, so they still help me a bit. Living on welfare is not as easy as I ever imagined. The state never pays quite enough to live off. It's a nightmare if you need a car, or even bus, to get to work, because they don't contribute enough for you to pay food, rent and transport.
I know there are girls who just go to the local nightclub and get pregnant to get welfare to provide housing, which I'm not pleased about, though to be honest, life must be bad to push them to that, and the baby shouldn't be on the street. If you don't have a young kid, welfare doesn't provide much, even less if you are a male, as even in this day of equal rights, men are somehow less vulnerable to poverty (!?)
Wear the same clothes for years, no recreation money, and a flat, well, it's better than a cardboard box on the street, but it's poorly-built and the neighbours have problems, which is difficult when you all live so close to each other. One thing about pioneering - all those years of living on a low budget, finding bargains and free things do help.
It gives me a lot of incentive to try harder, to better myself, just to get a better flat, etc. or a car that's so old and rusty that the mechanic keeps hinting it should have been scrapped. However, most other people just accept this as the way it as, and mention how their parents and grandparents lived this way. I think it must be depression, that people just give up, which I can understand, because I have been there. It's so sad though that most people just end up drinking, drugs, etc., which is impossible to pay for on welfare, so prompts crime. Prison doesn't help, therapy/love might.