Lifestyle choice: Peter and Claire Davey, with their seven children aged two to 12, pocket £815 [$1,318 US] a week in benefits. Mr Davey, 35, of Anglesey, North Wales, gave up his job as an administrator after realising he and his growing family would be better off living on the state (click on the image to enlarge)
‘Life on benefits is no longer an option’: Biggest welfare shake-up in 60 years will end system that rewards the workshy
James Chapman
The Daily Mail [UK]
17th February 2011
- Universal Credit will replace ‘dizzying’ array of benefits
- Claimants who refuse three reasonable job offers to lose hand-outs for three years
- Disability Living Allowance to become ‘sustainable’ system with regular health checks
- Those deemed fit to work will lose benefits if they turn offers down
- Housing benefit restricted to cheapest 30 per cent of homes in an area
- Cap on household benefits linked to average earnings
David Cameron today announced the most ambitious change to the welfare system since it began, promising to re-introduce a culture of responsibility that he said had been lost.
The Welfare Reform Bill will replace the complex array of benefits with a single Universal Credit, strip benefits from those who repeatedly turn down job offers and introduce new health check-ups for those who claim a disability stops them working.
Speaking in east London alongside the architect of the reforms, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, the Prime Minister said: ‘Never again will work be the wrong financial choice. Never again will we waste opportunity.
‘We’re finally going to make work pay – especially for the poorest people in society.
‘And we’re going to provide much greater support for unemployed people to find work – and stay in work.
‘We’re not just recasting the reach, scope and effectiveness of the old system – making it fairer and a genuine ladder of opportunity for everyone. We’re also doing something no government has done before – and that is get to grips with the cost of welfare.’
Read the rest at the Daily Mail.
H/T Verum Serum
