Those nasty Tories, they’re at it again. Now they’re trying to stigmatise benefit claimants by giving them special welfare cash cards so they can’t buy booze or cigarettes with their child benefit. That Dickensian Iain Duncan Smith was talking about the value of such a card on the lunchtime news, and has caused a bit of an uproar.
Except they’re not planning to do anything of the sort. I’ve just spoken to a source close to the Work and Pensions Secretary, who has completely refuted the idea that he’s going to bring a card in. The only hint he was making was that some vulnerable claimants such as people struggling with drug addictions might be better helped by a card, not every benefit claimant. The source says:
‘This is not something that is being considered, it is not in the pipeline.
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