Welfare system has ‘lost its way’ - Cameron

UK: Prime Minister David Cameron said Sunday that Britain’s welfare system had “lost its way” and become a “lifestyle choice”, amid a raging debate on government cutbacks to state handouts.

Cameron’s Conservative-Liberal coalition government, trying to rein in the national budget deficit, is bringing in a series of changes to the system this month -- in the face of bitter opposition from the Labour Party.

The debate has been fuelled by the case of Mick Philpott, a nationally notorious welfare-dependent father of 18, who was jailed last week for the manslaughter of six children in setting fire to his own house. Conservative Finance Minister George Osborne was blasted by Labour in unusually fierce terms when, asked whether Philpott was a product of the welfare system, he suggested there needed to be a debate about whether taxpayers should be subsidising lifestyles like his.

Opposition Labour finance spokesman Ed Balls said for Osborne “to link this wider debate to this shocking crime is nasty and divisive and demeans his office”.

Writing in The Sun newspaper, Cameron launched a staunch defence of the welfare shake-up, which includes capping the amount a household can claim at national average earnings.

He suggested it was “crazy” that welfare claimants could have a bigger income than workers.

AFP