Cameron's assault on the dependency culture

According to today's The Sunday Times, David Cameron is set to unveil a plan to get millions of Britons who claim welfare benefits back to work. The programme, similar to plans which already exist in America, focuses on people that have been unemployed for more than six months. This includes disabled people and single mothers, who would be forced to join training schemes or face a cut in their welfare payments.

The big idea is said to be the responsibility of Iain Duncan Smith, the former Torie leader, who is often considered the boldest thinker with regards to social justice. The scheme would see him fronting a committee in a future Conservative government although it is unclear as to whether he would become a cabinet minister or be given a senior role outside of cabinet.

Cameron's bold moves are designed to counter the Labour argument, which suggests that a new Torie government would repeat the errors of the 1980's recession and disregard the unemployed. It is the idea of Lord Freud, the Labour defector, who joined up with the Conservatives earlier this year (talk about jumping on the band-wagon!), and would mean that those on incapacity benefit would face rigorous medical checks and that anybody who refused to take a place on a training programme would face their payments being cut.

There are currently almost six million unemployed people claiming welfare benefits, but Cameron aims to drastically cut this number in the first four years of Torie government. He refuses to say exactly how much money the government would save on welfare payments, but he did say that he expects the scheme to "bring down the bill". - Let's hope so, it may even help to fill the financial chasm left by the 2012 Olympics, and the bank bail-out. It should certainly be an improvement on Labour's plans to raise the tax rate to 50% for those who earn £150k or more per year. An idea which could spark an exodus of up to 25,000 of Britain's big earners.