Cameron calls for housing benefit for under 25's to be cut
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, is set to announce a new proposal that could see people under the age of 25 lose their right to housing benefit.
Mr Cameron is to present the idea as a way of stopping people from resenting people who do receive benefits.
Mr Cameron said that the current system is sending out “strange signals” to the public on working, housing and families. His comments came just weeks after the number of people claiming housing benefit reached five million for the first time.
However, Liberal Democrat partners in the coalition, including Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, have criticised the Prime Minister in television interviews today.
Mr Alexander said that he was very “relaxed” about Mr Cameron setting out his own ideas on benefits but that the coalition had already brought in radical welfare reform.
Mr Cameron, in an interview in The Mail on Sunday, was attempting to appeal to core Conservative voters who have criticised the party for not promoting tory values since the inception of the coalition government in May 2010.
He said that the current welfare system sends out the signal that people are "better off not working, or working less".
“It encourages people not to work and have children, but we should help people to work and have children,” he said.
This week, Mr Cameron will set out new proposals aimed at lowering the welfare bill which could include new measures to force people to do community work after two years on benefits.
In March this year, the government’s Welfare Reform Act was given Royal Assent. This puts an annual cap on benefits.
Downing Street said that Mr Cameron’s interview was part of an attempt to encourage a debate on welfare and to set out new ideas.
Labour’s chief secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves told Sky News: "if the government are really serious about dealing with the benefits bill, they've got to get the economy moving again, they've got to get people back to work".
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