In Britain, the Conservative Party has proposed a welfare reform that would reduce Universal Credit by 30 percent for long-term unemployed claimants and confine their remaining payments to a prepaid card barring alcohol, tobacco, and gambling purchases. The plan, which would touch some 350,000 people and is projected to save £538 million a year, rests on the conviction that the current system rewards inactivity at the expense of working people. It arrives at a moment when benefit spending is forecast to swell toward £409 billion by the decade's end, and when competing visions of compassion, re
Tories propose welfare card to block alcohol, cigarette spending
Long-term unemployed claimants would face reduced benefits and restricted spending, potentially affecting 350,000 people and exacerbating hardship for vulnerable populations.