Nigel Farage has shared his disbelief at prisoners getting "pay" rises double the rate of nurses, police officers and firefighters.
The Ministry of Justice have said the increase is justified in recognition of the cost of living crisis, making sure offenders have their basic needs met after they are released to help stop them reoffending.
Prisoners will see subsistence payments increase by 8.4 percent, from £76 to £82.39 this month.
This follows a previous increase on the previous year’s figure of £46, after a 26-year freeze.
Image: GB News/PA
Speaking to The Telegraph a source said: “Prisoners are not immune from changes in the cost of living in terms of buying essentials in jail.
“There are particular risks if nothing is done in terms of the prison regime and in terms of the need to maintain good relationships.”
Reacting, Nigel said: “It all makes you begin to wonder, whether those that do wrong in some ways get treated better than those that do their best to obey the law and pay taxes!”
Appearing on Farage, former prisoner Mark Johnson MBE argued: “When you look at it, 60 percent of people over the last two years who have been released, went into unsettled accommodation.
“1,300 prisoners released in London completely homeless with a tent and a carrier bag. When you look at it that way it’s not a great deal of money actually.”
At current, prisoners over 18 years old who have served 14 days or more in custody after being handed a custodial sentence have to receive a subsistence payment.
Prisoners do not receive the payment if they are due to be deported from the UK, discharged to hospital under a mental health section order, on remand or recalled on license.
