The rate of worklessness for working-age British households is 16.1 percent, according to the Office of National Statistics (ons). That equates to more than 3 million homes in which nobody has a job.

These statistics, released on August 29, show that in inner London, the country’s financial capital and one-time seat of prosperity, nearly one quarter of all working-age households (23.9 percent) are without earned income. In outer London, one in six homes are without employment.

This amounts to a shocking burden on Britain’s very generous welfare state. One wonders how much longer working taxpayers can bear to support the growing millions of working-age unemployed in addition to normal state operations.

Besides direct costs to taxpayers (via welfare payments), studies also show that unemployment is linked to social breakdown and higher crime.

And the ons figures only include households where there is someone between the working ages of 18 and 65; so, given the vast number of retirees, there are far more than just 3 million British households reliant on benefits.

“These figures are a damning indictment of the failures of government policy,” said the Conservative Party’s work and pensions spokesman Chris Grayling. “We are seeing the consequences of this failure in many of the social problems that we now see in our streets and our communities.”

The real kicker for British taxpayers is that of the more than 3 million homes listed as workless, it is estimated that only one in five has a member actively seeking a job. Most are unable or aren’t even trying to find work.

Many of the jobless households contain single parents. An astounding 34.9 percent of single working-age parents with children rely upon welfare. (In contrast, the report showed that the least likely group to be out of work was married couples with children: Only 5.5 percent lived in a workless household.) According to the Daily Mail, the surge in the number of unemployed single parents comes despite a massive government campaign to convince lone mothers to take jobs. Approximately $32 billion (£16 billion) in taxpayer dollars are spent each year just supporting single parents.

The ons report also highlights employment differences between ethnicities. Among white working-age people, 10.9 percent live in a household without an income, compared to a 19 percent average for all other ethnic groups. Only 10 percent of working-age Indians live in a workless household, while 21.3 percent of Pakistani /Bangladeshi and 25 percent of Chinese were in workless households. Among blacks, 21.2 percent of working-age people reported living in a household that did not include a single employed member.

Britain is not the only Western nation burdened with the high cost of massive and growing welfare programs. Read: “The United Welfare States of America” for a detailed examination of the causes of today’s welfare problems.