The Conservative Party would introduce payment cards for convicted criminals to prevent money paid out in state benefits from being spent on gambling, alcohol or cigarettes.
Explaining the policy, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “This is part of our wider plans to reduce benefit spending, including by preventing all foreign citizens from receiving any benefits.
“This particular announcement today relates to criminals, criminals with community sentences or suspended sentences, or for the year or period on license after leaving prison, and for a year thereafter.
“We think it is immoral. We think it's wrong that those criminals who receive benefits funded by hardworking taxpayers can then spend that on gambling or on alcohol or on cigarettes. So rather than give those people cash, which essentially is what happens at the moment, they would instead get a payment card.
“That payment card would not be able to be used to withdraw cash from an ATM, transfer money to other people, or be used for buying alcohol or for gambling, for example.
“We think that is the least that we should be doing to protect taxpayers from having their money wasted on people with criminal convictions who might then go and waste that money.”
He added: “This is about criminals, where there's an overwhelming moral case. We also need to get the benefits bill down more generally.
“Welfare is far too high. It's wrong that foreign citizens currently get benefits that will end under a Conservative government. It's also wrong that people with mild anxiety or mild depression get signed off sick without even seeing a doctor face to face.
"Billions of pounds are getting paid to them. That must frankly end as well. And under the next Conservative government, it will end, and we'll use the money saved on those things to partly pay down the national debt, but also spend more money on our military, and of course also cut taxes.”
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