The National Theatre aims to offer 25% of tickets for £30 or less, with cheaper seats limited to two per customer. Reduced standby seats priced at £20, £25, or £30 are only available to students, theatre union members, and the unemployed an hour before a show begins. However, dynamic pricing has led to higher costs for some patrons: a father was quoted £440 for four War Horse tickets on a Saturday in June, and another person received quotes of £162 and £220 for two tickets to Les Liaisons Dangereuses for nearly identical seats.
Across the UK, families receiving benefits can claim substantial discounts at major attractions, while those working pay more. A family of four can visit the Tower of London for £4 instead of £111 if one parent receives universal credit, and entry to Buckingham Palace is £1 per ticket for those on universal credit, compared to £99 for a family of four typically. More than 80 attractions give discounts to benefit claimants, including London Zoo, which offers an £82 reduction, lowering a family ticket from £108 to £26, and Westminster Abbey, which provides a £60 saving from its standard £62 family price, costing families just £2. Other sites like HMS Belfast, St Paul's Cathedral, Kew Gardens, Kensington Palace, and the Cutty Sark offer similar reductions.
The UK has a whole web of subsidies and discounts that are not officially a part of the welfare state but which nonetheless redirect money from those who do not claim benefits to those who do.
Critics have raised concerns about fairness and impact. According to Daily Mail - News, Christopher Swindon from the Institute of Economic Affairs warned that people will face paying more to cover ticket prices for other groups. The National Theatre has waged war on middle-class families with dynamic pricing, according to Daily Mail - News, and middle-class families face paying more to sit in the audience for the most popular shows at the National Theatre. MPs have argued that the system of discounts for benefit claimants creates a two-tier system that punishes work.