'It's not their money, it's taxpayer money!': Kemi Badenoch defends 'tough love' Tory plan to block welfare claimants from spending benefits cash on booze and fags

Kemi Badenoch today defended her 'tough love' plan to block some welfare claimants from spending their benefits cash on alcohol, cigarettes and gambling.The Tory leader has unveiled proposals for Universal Credit payments to be slashed for those who have not made consistent contributions to the welfare system.Anyone who claims Universal Credit when they are out of work would get six months of full benefits to find a job under the Conservative plans.After that, the full rate would only be available to people who have contributed to the welfare system through their taxes for years.Those who have not would have their Universal Credit standard rate cut by 30 per cent and the payment would be loaded onto a 'back to work' pre-payment card.This would ban spending on cigarettes, alcohol, betting and cash withdrawals.Mrs Badenoch on Thursday dismissed suggestions that the state should not decide what welfare claimants can and cannot spend their benefits on.Asked whether her plan was 'too paternalistic' and 'infantilising' welfare claimants, the Tory leader shot back: 'But it's not their money, it's taxpayers' money.' Kemi Badenoch today defended her 'tough love' plan to block some welfare claimants from spending their benefits cash on alcohol, cigarettes and gambling 'This is the thing that we keep forgetting,' Mrs Badenoch told GB News.'The state's not telling any of us how to spend the money we earn, but if people are being given taxpayers' money to survive, then we don't want them gambling with it.'We know that alcoholism and being out of work actually correlates. So we want to get people into work. It's not just about the money.'The money is important, but it is also about what kind of country we are. We are a nation of people who work hard, who get on in life.'We're not a nation of people who just decide that they don't want to work.'The Tories have estimated their proposed welfare reforms will save taxpayers £538million a year by moving 350,000 claimants onto a new 'subsistence allowance'.Under the plans, every two years a Universal Credit claimant has worked would buy them an extra year on the full rate of the benefit.The so-called subsistence rate available to those who have not contributed enough would be worth 70p for every pound of the full rate.Those on the subsistence rate would be given a pre-payment card to access their benefits.People who are off sick, who are disabled, or who are claiming Universal Credit while in work, would be exempt and unaffected by the plans.Mrs Badenoch was pressed on whether the Tory plans would unfairly target young people who have not been able to contribute to the welfare system because they cannot get a job.She replied: 'Let's just remember what benefits are for. They are a safety net, not a lifestyle.'There are currently 1.1million people who are assessed as being able to work who are out of work.'What we're saying is that after six months, we're going to be pushing you into a job. 'That's most important for young people because they're the ones who, if they start off on benefits early, they may never ever get a job.'They need to get that experience. So this is not punishment, this is tough love. It's a really, really important thing to remember that the best welfare is a good paying job.'Robert Jenrick, Reform UK's Treasury spokesman, said the Tory plan will not put a dent in Britain's ballooning benefits bill.'This welfare plan is so weak the Lib Dems could have authored it,' he said. 'The Tories left more people on long-term benefits and benefit fraud at record levels.'Now they offer a spending card that won't even put a dent in the coming £400billion bill. It's a sticking plaster on a wound they opened.'Kemi's latest decision to let the permanently unemployed go on claiming forever is tantamount to stabbing workers in the back.'A Labour Party spokesperson said: 'The Conservatives had 14 years to fix our welfare system but they completely failed to make meaningful reforms.'Now they are proposing an unworkable new card scheme, which does nothing to tackle the numbers of people their system left signed off and written off.'While the bill for the taxpayer rose by £33billion in their last year in government, this Labour Government is introducing effective and sustainable welfare reform alongside a £3.5billion employment support package to help people stay in or return to work, and the national rollout of the jobs guarantee for young people who have been on Universal Credit.'