Troubled Families Could Be Banned From Spending On Alcohol and Tobacco

Iain Duncan Smith has asked his officials to see if so-called ‘problem’ families should receive their welfare payments on smart cards, rather than in cash.  The cards would only be able to pay for “priority” items such as food, housing, clothing, education and health care. Duncan Smith wants to stop parents who are alcoholics or who are on drugs from using welfare payments to fuel their addictions.  The team of civil servants in his department have been asked to come up with proposals by the end of this month.  However the Government cannot currently stipulate how people spend their benefits money and the law would need to be changed to do so for certain groups.  One idea is for the 120,000 problem families who were identified in the Government’s riots review to be given the Oyster-style cards.  A source close to Mr Duncan Smith said: “There are people who are using benefits to fund a habit and children are going hungry.  “It is something that he is serious about – if he can make it work and he can legislate then he is very keen to do it.”  Read more on the Telegraph website.