Welfare dependency, most agree, is an ugly thing. It is also a loaded term that brings to mind bludgers addicted to government benefits.

We're not thinking, of course, of the 44 per cent of taxpayers who get more in benefits than they pay in. Who dares suggest ''working families'', even if quite well off, are guilty of some sort of moral failing for accepting state handouts?

Illustration: Andrew Dyson.

It seems the better off feel entitled to better treatment by government. Their status as wealth generators is a passport to ''diplomatic immunity'' from accusations of sponging off the state - however disproportionate to need their benefits and tax concessions may be. Similarly, while age pensioners get the biggest slice of $132 billion in welfare spending (36 per cent of the budget), they are seen to have earned the right to be dependent on government - even those living in $1 million-plus homes. Pensioners and their assets are untouchable, too.

The young, unemployed and single mothers are subject to a different standard. They get lower benefits, often too low to keep them out of poverty, but are treated as a morally suspect underclass that lives off taxpayers who have worked hard for everything they have.