Dean Russell, a spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Conservatives, has accused opponents of the government’s benefits cap of “letting down working people who earn modest wages and unemployed people trapped by welfare dependency”.
“For the most part the arguments against the cap are well-meaning, but they’re also seriously flawed”, Dean explained. “The current situation isn’t fair to hard-working people, whose taxes are being used to sustain benefits which can be more generous than a very healthy working wage. Neither is it fair to unemployed people, who are being deprived of an incentive to get back into work and find themselves trapped in dependency and poverty”.
“Government should always provide for those who fall on hard times, but it must also ensure that people are encouraged back into work and training as quickly as possible. Otherwise they can become trapped in the unrewarding, low income, dependency lifestyle, which has already laid waste to so many communities”.
“Those who oppose a benefits cap are in danger of ‘killing by kindness’. Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reforms will ensure that, while benefits continue to provide a safety net for the needy, they will not offer a lucrative alternative to seeking work. The benefits cap is the right thing morally and it is also the right thing to repair our broken society.”