Think-Tank ‘Demos’ finds in survey that most want welfare reform.

A survey from the Think tank ‘Demos’, found that an overwhelming amount of the public supported state controls on how people spend their benefits.

  ‘Whilst 6 in 10 people (59%) agreed the government should control what people spend universal credit on, the figure rises sharply for certain recipient groups and for the purchase of specific items.’

I personally thought vouchers would have been a great way to curb the disastrous policy that was EMA. This to me sounds like a good step forward in times of absolute austerity.

Here are some more of Demos’ findings.

An overwhelming 9 out of 10 people (87%) said at least one group of welfare recipients should have their benefits controlled. 77% said yes to monitoring people with a substance or gambling addiction and 69% for those with a criminal or anti-social history. These figures rose to 82% and 75% respectively among respondents aged over 65.

Over two-thirds of respondents (68%) agreed the government should stop all recipients from spending their benefits on gambling.

Over half (54%) agreed with the government stopping people spending their benefits on unhealthy items such as cigarettes or alcohol.

Just under half (46%) opposed benefits being spent on branded goods such as Nike trainers etc,

Approximately 4 in 10 people backed a ban on buying junk food (38%) and over a third (35%) on holidays.