Conservatives pledge to cut benefits for the long-term unemployed

Kemi Badenoch has pledged that a future Conservative government would pay only a “subsistence allowance” to some unemployed benefits claimants who have been out of work for more than six months, with payments loaded onto a “back to work” pre-payment card that bans spending on alcohol, cigarettes, betting and cash withdrawals. The policy was unveiled ahead of the Conservative conference.

Under the plan, every two years someone has been in work would entitle them to a year on the full standard rate of universal credit, worth up to £424.90 a month. Those who have not worked enough would instead receive 70 per cent of the full benefit as an incentive to get back to work.

The policy could affect up to 1.1 million claimants who have been claiming for more than six months and are in the “searching for work” group. The Tories estimate it would save taxpayers £538 million a year from a total universal credit bill of £80 billion. Claimants who are sick, disabled or in work would be exempt, and extra benefits for children or housing costs would be unaffected.

Ms Badenoch said: “What is unfair is a system where someone who can work chooses not to and earns more from benefits than someone in a job.” She added: “Helping people into work is not punishment. The best welfare is a well-paid job.”

Labour called it an “unworkable new card scheme”, saying the Conservatives “had 14 years to fix our welfare system but they completely failed”. Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s economics spokesman, dismissed it as a “sticking plaster on a wound they opened”.

Sources

• The Times — “Conservatives pledge to cut benefits for the long-term unemployed” (https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/conservatives-benefits-cut-long-term-unemployed-3q58vb73f)
• The Sun — “Kemi Badenoch vows to cut benefits by a third for claimants who fail to get a job in six months” (https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/40476277/kemi-badenoch-cut-benefits-claimants-no-job/)