THERE are plenty of people who depend on welfare benefits because they have a genuine need. And then there are those who abuse the system.

The Government has a responsibility to protect the genuinely vulnerable who need state help. But David Cameron is right to step up efforts to root out the spongers.

Stanley Clifton, 31, of Darlington, falls into the latter category. Indeed, Judge John Walford has branded him: “The embodiment of the welfare dependency culture.”

Father-of-four Clifton has never had a job. However, the rules allow him to claim hundreds of pounds a month in Incapacity Benefit for alcoholism – even though he claims not to have had a drink for a year.

Those rules also made him ineligible for unpaid community work, which was part of his sentence for committing an assault.

Clifton has responded to the judge’s condemnation of his lifestyle with a shameless foul-mouthed tirade in which he questions the judge’s right to criticise him – or the benefits system.

In summary, without the swear words, Clifton’s view is that he has quite enough on his hands, looking after children.

Well, so do a lot of people – and they still manage to earn an honest living.

This is a case which shows why David Cameron is right to tighten up the rules. The problem is that genuine welfare benefit claimants are often tarred with the same brush as spongers like Stanley Clifton.