Tories unveil ‘Back to Work card’ to cut long-term jobless benefits

How the Back to Work card would work

The idea is to cut benefits from individuals unemployed for more than six months who has not paid enough into the system.

A lower amount would be transferred onto the prepaid Back to Work card, blocking cash withdrawals and spending on those demerit items.

Tories expect the drastic change to push people back into the work force while cutting welfare bills.

They estimate moving roughly 350,000 claimants onto the lower rate, saving approximately £538 million annually.

Labour dismissed the plan as unworkable, with a party spokesperson saying that "the Conservatives had 14 years to fix our welfare system but they completely failed to make meaningful reforms.

"Now they are proposing an unworkable new card scheme, which does nothing to tackle the numbers of people their system left signed off and written off."

Conservatives argue that claimants who previously worked would buy them an extra year at the full Universal Credit rate, while those who have not contributed enough would drop to a new "subsistence allowance" worth 70% of the full rate.

Shadow welfare secretary Helen Whately describes the card as "a version" of the existing prepaid Aspen card.

People who are sick, disabled or already in work would be exempt, as would a claimant such as a 58 year-old made redundant after working since leaving school, would keep the full allowance to state pension age.

The Tories are yet to say when the policy could take effect, according to BBC News political reporter Becky Morton.

The proposition lands as welfare spending remains one of the most contested issues at Westminster, including for whoever is currently young and unemployed and watching the rules change around them.