MAIL ONLINE: Britain’s welfare system is ‘bust’ and faces its most radical overhaul for 60 years to undo Labour’s legacy of benefit dependency, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith declared today.
The former Tory leader vowed to end the scandal that means welfare claimants are no better off – and sometimes poorer – if they come off the dole to take jobs paying up to £15,000 a year.
He also signalled that benefit payments to the middle classes were likely to be pared back in favour of income tax cuts – and the state pension age might have to rise more quickly than planned.
Giving his first newspaper interview since making an extraordinary return to the political frontline, Mr Duncan Smith told the Daily Mail the unemployed should do community work to keep benefits.
Those who refused to look for work, take jobs that were offered to them or do voluntary work would have their handouts stopped, he said.
Mr Duncan Smith said it was simply not ‘sustainable’ for Britain to carry on spending almost 14 per cent of its national income on welfare.
The bewilderingly complex benefits system should be radically simplified, and the perverse penalty against couples living together brought to an end, he added.
Mr Duncan Smith today published startling new evidence of the benefits culture and inequality that Labour has left behind after 13 years in power. Work or lose your benefits: Iain Duncan Smith heralds biggest shake-up of welfare state since the war >>> James Chapman | Thursday, May 27, 2010
