'Gary tried to work at 16, found it stressful hasn't worked since - today he's 49. There are hundreds of thousands of Garys out there' says Kelvin MacKenzie

Gary, who says stress and anxiety led him to a doctor who signed him on to sickness benefits, has no regrets about the way life has worked out. He says: ‘’I wouldn’t be able to work. It would be too stressful and I don’t like being told what to do.

‘’And I would have to pay too much tax. I don’t believe in paying to work.’’

Thank God most of us don’t think like Gary.

Where does he think his benefits money comes from? That money tree down the road from his subsidised housing?

Hastings is just a microcosm of a massively serious issue gripping our nation. Since Covid, and for reasons that are unclear but containing a strong whiff of idleness, the number of people neither in work or looking for a job has gone through the roof.

In the three months to January, 9.3million people were like Gary, economically inactive, according to the ONS. This is up 819,000 on pre-Covid levels. Sickness was the biggest driver with 2.7million saying they couldn’t seek work because they are too unwell.

Hastings is a shocker. Around 5,502 people are claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for mental health issues, disability or illness. I can understand disability and illness being easily proved but what about mental health.

Can a GP really tell whether somebody is being truthful when they say they are suffering from anxiety? And I’m told that with illness, it’s back and neck pain which are claimed as the main reason for being unable to work.

The old back pain scam eh. It’s been pulled for years but in the old days not so many tried it on.

Today, the attitude, especially by the under 40s, is different. They will give anything a go if it means free money.

It’s the under 40s who have seen or claimed their mental health condition as the most commonly cited ailment.

One 28-year-old woman who was on disability benefit and never had a job, told The Telegraph writer: "I wouldn’t have time to do anything else if I worked.’’ Thank you for that explanation.

Claudio Ganadu, managing director of Rustico Italiano, a restaurant chain employing 80 people, believes the reason the young are going sick is that they simply don’t want to work anymore.

MR Ganadu said; ‘’It’s not a priority for them. They do not believe work is as valuable as an hour doing something else.’’

He says fewer under-25s are applying for jobs and many who are simply lazy. ‘’The difficulty is not recruiting, but recruiting the right people that are actually willing to work for a business.

‘’People are not as willing as before to do some jobs. They just want to be stress free.’’

Many in business believe the ridiculous furlough scheme which saw the government ( ie. the taxpayer) subsidise the wages of 11.7million jobs during lockdown at a staggering cost of £70billion, played a key role for developing a country of workshy.

I was chatting to a Tory MP with Polish ancestry the other day and he told me that at the present rate the Polish economy will pass ours within twenty years.

No wonder all the hard-working Poles went back to a country with hope and a booming economy which has meant there is no competition on builders’ prices here if you want an extension or the like.

The effect? In the last couple of years building costs have gone off the dial. I accept that raw materials have exploded, but people costs have gone even higher.

Local businesses in Hastings say if they offer minimum wage, which as of next month, is £11.44 an hour (just south of £25,000 a year) the young say they would rather stay at home. They should not be given that option.

Nobody checks if the Garys of this world are getting better and can come off sickness benefit. He has a check-up once every five years. He volunteers at a leisure centre and had some mentoring sessions. Apart from that, he’s left alone.

This can’t carry on. For two reasons. The first is that we can’t afford it. The United Kingdom is economically in decline and we cannot keep funding the idle and the sick at these rates as though we are a rich nation.

The Asian countries are eating our lunch. They do not carry our welfare burden and therefore can undercut our prices and markets.

I expect the situation to get worse under Starmer. And the knock on from that is that the middle classes will bear the burden as the rich will bugger off to the US and it will be politically impossible for Labour to cut benefits.

This will lead to increasing resentment and possibly middles class business owners refusing to pay their tax. Do you find that shocking?

Is that anywhere near as shocking as doctors going on strike and leaving your old mum to die? I never thought I would see that.

Under Starmer and Co, who support the doctors strike, there will be massive resentments from the middle classes. It will play out in surprising ways.