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The Tories’ assault on the welfare state has backfired and sympathy for people trapped on benefits is rising, a study reveals.

David Cameron and George Osborne have tried to divide Britain by painting those on benefits as “shirkers” as they impose swingeing cuts.

But the numbers saying that payments to the unemployment are “too high and discourage work” plunged from a high of 62% in 2011 to 51% last year.

There has also been a five-point rise in those saying that cutting benefits “would damage too many people’s lives”, according to today’s British Social Attitudes survey.

And 34% of people support more spending on benefits – even if it means higher taxes – up from 28% two years ago.

Numbers saying unemployed people could find a job if they wanted has also dropped from 68% in 2008 to 54% last year.

The findings fly in the face of three decades of hardening public attitudes towards welfare.

Support for the welfare system is still historically low, with the numbers backing more cash for benefits down from 55% in 1987.

Eight out of 10 people, 81%, also believe that large numbers of people falsely claim benefits compared with 67% back then.

But Alison Park, of NatCen Social Research which produced the survey, said that austerity seemed to be reversing the trend.

She said: “Thirty years of NatCen’s British Social Attitudes survey shows that the nation has become much more cynical about the welfare state and benefit recipients..

“But austerity seems to be beginning to soften the public mood. It’s also clear that on some issues the public are very divided in their views.

“It remains to be seen what impact the coalition government’s welfare reform agenda will have on public attitudes, and whether the small recent upturn in sympathy marks the beginning of a longer term trend.”

People are more interested in politics and feel that they have more influence than in the past.

The numbers saying that they felt a duty to vote have also risen from 56% in 2008 to 62% last year.

But politicians are still generally held in contempt. Fewer than one in five people, 18%, say they trust the Government to put the country before their own party.

More than nine out of 10, 93%, said that they “almost never” trust Mps to tell the truth when they are in a tight corner or “only some of the time”.

NatCen interviewed 3,248 people for the poll, which was carried out last year on behalf of the Government.