Rich, From A Tory

7:05PM GMT 18 Dec 2012

'Ban benefits claimants from spending on drink and cigarettes'

"Benefits claimants should be banned from spending welfare payments on “luxury” items like alcohol, cigarettes and satellite television, a Government aide has said.

Strain: the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is masterminding welfare reforms

Alec Shelbrooke said that claimants should be paid welfare via electronic cash cards that could only be used to buy essentials like food, clothing, energy, travel and housing.

Mr Shelbrooke, a Conservative MP, is a parliamentary private secretary at the Northern Ireland Office,

He made the suggestion as a backbencher in the House of Commons, but ministers are understood to be looking at similar ideas.

Mr Shelbrooke has drafted a Bill that would change the law to allow welfare payments to be made on a new “welfare cash card” whose use could be restricted by the Government."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9754188/120000-troubled-families-could-be-legally-banned-from-spending-benefits-on-alochol-and-tobacco.html

MP: Ban benefit claimants from buying alcohol

http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_9779000/9779292.stm

No beer on benefits: Tory MP wants those on benefits banned from buying "unnecessary items" 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tory-mp-alec-shelbrooke-wants-1496523

We won't dish out benefits: Tories declares war on claimants by studying plans for welfare card

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/government-studying-welfare-card-plans-1499584

Alec introduces the Welfare Cash Card

http://www.alecshelbrooke.co.uk/index.php/home

Welfare cash card

http://blueconservative.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/welfare-cash-card-2/ 

*****

I contacted Mr Shelbrooke ...

Subject: Your Dangerous Madness

Dear Sir,

I will try to be brief, as I do not believe your offensive ideas warrant much effort.

JSA is deemed "the minimum amount one can live on".

Living is more than survival.

Many of us are likely to be on JSA (or equivalent), for the remainder of our 'working' lives.

Imagine a life, with no hope for anything other than state-sanctioned commodities.

Can you imagine that?

Does it ring a bell?

Is that the kind of country you believe in?

Yours,

NLO
http://criticalestoppel.blogspot.co.uk
(and, no, I do not 'drink' or smoke)

*****

Friday 21 December 2012 12.57 GMT

Welfare cash cards and spying: the Tory approach to unemployment

"An MP's proposal to stop claimants buying 'luxury goods' would fit with a new website that tracks job search activities."

January 14, 2013

Alec Shelbrooke: The need to reverse Labour’s destruction of the Welfare State is greater than ever

"This is a plea to the reader – it is not in my character, nor ever the intention of my Bill to play one section of society off against another. To suggest otherwise is not only false but damaging and disrespectful to the 5.8m recipients of DWP benefits who believe in the integral importance of the Welfare State."

Nigel