Families who have more than two children will lose benefits as ministers claim Labour’s welfare state promoted ‘destructive’ behaviour
Daily Mail -
- Iain Duncan Smith to call for further changes to the welfare system
- The Work and Pensions Secretary plans to restrict housing benefits to the under-25s
- Lib Dems insist it is not government policy
Jobless couples with more than two children should have benefit payments limited, Iain Duncan Smith suggested yesterday.
The Work and Pensions Secretary said there were ‘large numbers’ of couples on welfare having big families – unlike middle-income parents who had to weigh up if they could afford to have another child.
Mr Duncan Smith condemned the ‘madness’ of the state subsidising large workless families – saying it would be fairer to the ‘vast majority’ of responsible taxpayers if benefits were limited to the first two children in future.
He has agreed to find another £10billion in welfare savings by 2016, having already slashed £18billion from a vast budget that grew by 60 per cent under Labour.
As well as cuts to child benefit and tax credits for large workless families, he suggested housing benefit could be stripped for those who expected to go straight from school on to welfare and a state-subsidised house.
Liberal Democrat sources, however, warned nothing had been agreed and suggested the proposals were ‘just Tory kite-flying’.
A senior Lib Dem source said: ‘It doesn’t even save very much money as we’ve already introduced a benefits cap.’ But Mr Duncan Smith said more reforms were vital as the Government sought to control public finances.
He dismissed suggestions the Coalition was ‘hurting’ claimants – insisting the real cruelty was leaving people languishing on welfare for years. ‘We have accepted for far too long in this country that it is possible for people to just stay on benefits,’ he said. ‘It is all about saying, we will give you massive support to find work… But also, we have an expectation, as the taxpayer pays for these bills, that you try your hardest to find work.’
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2012-11-18 12:21:03
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