What is meant by the term underclass?

What is meant by the term “underclass”? How useful is the concept in explaining the position of welfare claimants in Britain in the 21st Century.

The concept of the underclass is perceived to be an historical phenomenon. One of the oldest analysers of the concept referred to the notion if the underclass as the over production and over population of the lower classes. Marx saw the underclass as a vast army of illiterate workers. He thought that the people that made up the underclass were too ignorant and unorganised to achieve any real class status. As time has progressed many other different definitions of the underclass have been put forward. Within this essay these different notions of the underclass will be discussed in further detail and also the link or furthermore the usefulness of the concept is in explaining the position of welfare claimants in Britain in the 21st century.

The term the underclass is basically defined by sociologists to be a group of people who do not...