A growing number of Britons are on disability benefits

In a communityDWPTLADWPGDP centre in Northampton, a town in central England, a group of mental-health patients are learning how to navigate the benefits system. A young mother with psychosis wants to know how a new job will affect her payments; a man with severe anxiety struggles to support his autistic son. Their guide to the welfare state, an ex-adviser to the Department for Work and Pensions (), is sympathetic but slips unthinkingly into jargon. “Forgive me if I speak in s,” he says.Britain’s welfare state can be impenetrable to claimants. It is also immense: no government department spends more than the . This year spending on social security in Britain is expected to pass £300bn ($376bn), the equivalent of 11% of . It is forecast to reach £350bn by 2028.