UK Tories’ ‘back to work’ card would block alcohol
Claimants would keep the full rate for six months, and after that only if they have built up enough years of paying tax.
The Tories would put reduced Universal Credit payments for long-term jobless claimants onto a “back to work” card banning spending on alcohol, cigarettes and betting, party leader Kemi Badenoch has said.
Under the plans, reported on 23 September by the PA news agency, anyone who claims Universal Credit while out of work would get six months on the full rate to find a job.
After that, the full rate would be kept only by those who have paid into the system through years of tax. Every two years worked would buy a claimant an extra year at that rate.
Claimants who have not contributed enough would have their standard rate cut by a third.
Those on what the party calls a “subsistence allowance” – worth 70p for every pound of the full rate – would be given a pre-payment card to draw their benefits.
The card could be used for food, other everyday essentials and bills, but not for alcohol, cigarettes, bets or cash withdrawals.
The Conservatives’ own estimate is that 350,000 claimants would move onto the lower rate, saving the taxpayer £538m a year.
Nothing would change for people who are off sick, who are disabled, or who are claiming Universal Credit while in work.
Badenoch said: “Some will say this is unfair on people claiming benefits. What is unfair is a system where someone who can work chooses not to and earns more from benefits than someone in a job.”
“If you can work, you should work. Helping people into work is not punishment. The best welfare is a well-paid job,” the Conservative leader added.
Welfare, in Badenoch’s words, must be “a safety net for those who genuinely need it, not a lifestyle choice for those who can’t be bothered.”
Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said Britain “can’t afford” a system in which millions of people live on benefits instead of in work: “For people living on the breadline, work, not benefits, is the way out of poverty.”
Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman, said the plan would not put a dent in the benefit bill, calling it “so weak the Lib Dems could have authored it”.
Further plans for welfare reform are likely to be set out at the Conservative party conference later in September.