Conservative minister Helen Whately was slammed for her party’s plans to cut the welfare bill by limiting what some people can spend their benefits on.
This week, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch announced plans to cut Universal Credit payments for the long-term unemployed who haven’t contributed enough tax into the system.
The plans would see a “subsistence level” amount loaded onto a pre-payment card. Recipients would not be able to withdraw cash using the card and would also not be able to spend money on cigarettes, alcohol or gambling.
Appearing on Question Time on Thursday, shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately defended the policy, saying it was aimed at those who “should be working but aren’t.”
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She said: “Fundamentally, we have a problem that our welfare bill is out of control and we can’t afford it as a country.
“We also have a problem of people who are long-term unemployed, and I’m talking about people who should be working but aren’t.”
Whately argued the policy was “about stopping people living a lifestyle on welfare”.
The policy was criticised by journalist Ash Sarkar, who said it was just a repeat of the same arguments from the Tories since the 1980s.
She accused the Conservatives of “trying to pit people who are in work against people who are on welfare and making them feel that they’re lazy and undeserving.”
This was echoed by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, who said: “You can tell how old you are by how many times you’ve heard Tory MPs announce this policy.”
He accused the Tories of playing up to stereotypes that unemployed people “spend all their money on fags and booze,” saying there was no evidence for this.
“It’s just a way of you saying you don’t like poor people,” he told Whately.