Tory welfare crackdown would ban benefit spending on alcohol and cigarettes

Scores of benefit claimants would receive their welfare payments on a ‘Back To Work’ card that bans spending on alcohol, cigarettes or betting under plans announced by the Conservatives.

Under a new crackdown on the welfare system, unemployed people on benefits will see their payments fall by 30 per cent. 

Those who are on Universal Credit for more than six months and judged to be fit to work would receive the Subsistence Allowance, which is 70 per cent of the full rate offered to claimants. 

The plan would allow claimants who have worked for two years to get one year on the full Universal Credit rate. 

It would mean that an adult who has worked since leaving school at 18 yet has fallen on tough times would enjoy a better benefits package than someone who has only worked for one year, or not at all.

Claimants on the reduced rate would have to spend on food and goods via a ‘Back to Work’ card, which would also block cash withdrawals. It draws on a similar system to Australia, where debit cards for some benefits claimants cannot be used to withdraw cash or buy alcohol. 

The Conservatives said the plan would not affect the sick, the disabled or those who are already employed as they are already exempt from the Subsistence Allowance. 

According to party analysis, the proposal would save taxpayers £538m a year. 

Benefits scheme is ‘tough’ on exploitation

This proposal comes on top of other welfare reforms that the Tories have backed, including scrapping disability payments for low-level mental health conditions and restoring the two-child benefit cap. 

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said she would be “tough on those who exploit the system because the current system is unfair to workers, taxpayers and those who truly need support”. 

“Some will say this is unfair on people claiming benefits,” 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.

“We should not be borrowing from our children and grandchildren to support people who simply refuse to work. Welfare must be a safety net for those who genuinely need it, not a lifestyle choice for those who can’t be bothered.”

Reform UK’s Robert Jenrick said the plan was “so weak the Lib Dems could have authored it”. The party has pledged to cut the welfare bill by over £50bn while the Tories have planned for a smaller yet substantial cut of around £23bn. 

“The Tories left more people on long-term benefits and benefit fraud at record levels,” Jenrick said. “Now they offer a spending card that won’t even put a dent in the coming £400 billion bill. It’s a sticking plaster on a wound they opened.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Conservatives had 14 years to fix our welfare system but they completely failed to make meaningful reforms.

“Now they are proposing an unworkable new card scheme, which does nothing to tackle the numbers of people their system left signed off and written off.”