Iain Duncan Smith announced a pilot programme based on Alec Shelbrooke’s Welfare Cash Card scheme. The pilot will look at ways in which a pre-paid card, with the ability to restrict the purchase of alcohol, gambling and cigarettes, can better support those currently on benefits who have budgeting and addiction problems.
Alec Shelbrooke MP said out of work welfare benefits should pay for food, energy, transport clothing and housing (F.E.T.C.H.) because those are the basic needs a state should be providing – not alcohol, cigarettes or used for gambling.
Mr Sjelbrooke said “For all of the criticism I have received from those on the left for suggesting that state-funded benefits should not be spent on items such as cigarettes, alcohol and gambling, not one of those people has been able to tell me how those damaging items prevent the most vulnerable from falling further into poverty”.
Claudia Wood, chief executive of Demos, said “polling shows that rolling out prepaid cards more widely for the purposes of restricting what people could spend their benefits on would be extremely controversial, ethically questionable and practically and technologically challenging,” she said.
“The government should proceed with caution by only piloting the scheme for people who need and want the additional safety net a prepaid card can offer, and must stay away from the slippery slope of wider controls.”
The website 38 Degrees has launched a campaign to try to get the government re-think this scheme.
It says “his plan is ridiculous, degrading and a breach of our human rights. Not allowing us to have any cash at all is an unwise and unworkable idea, because some things do require cash, e.g. travelling on the bus, buying fresh vegetables and fruit from a farmer’s market, using vending machines, using a trolley at the supermarket, buying second-hand clothes from a car boot sale. The poor often buy second-hand goods in charity shops, car boot sales and Ebay. Many buy books and worksheets for their children, plus toys and Christmas presents, and benefit cards would take all of that away from them”.
Whilst the announcement from Iain Duncan smith attracted applause from the audience, these are schemes based on a philosophy about the poor that assumes that those who depend on the state will fritter money away given half the chance. That is not a view backed up by evidence. Research has shown that, in other countries, it is better to transfer money and resources directly to the households in poverty and allow them to decide how best to spend it. And there is no reason that the same shouldn’t be true in the UK. Put simply, benefits claimants do not spend all their money on booze and fags if they are left to their own devices.
Please add your comments as we would love to hear from you if you are likely to be affected by this card, or if you have an opinion about people on benefits and the impact of the card.
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