Should rioters lose their entitlement to benefits? At the time of writing, just short of 100,000 people who signed the e-petition calling for “any persons convicted of criminal acts during the London riots” to have “all financial benefits removed” think so. If selected by the backbench business committee, the proposal may be debated in the House of Commons and could lead to legislation. The prospects of this are not fanciful. In the Commons debate today, Natascha Engel, Labour MP and chair of the committee, asked David Cameron for assurances that e-petitioners’ proposals on the riots would be given due consideration.
The housing minister, Grant Shapps, is ahead of the game. He is already consulting on a proposal to guarantee that anyone convicted of anti-social behaviour can automatically be evicted from social housing. He stated today that he would like to extend his proposal to include those convicted of rioting related offences regardless of whether the offence occurred in the person’s own neighbourhood.
As the benefits system works at the moment, convictions for a criminal offence do not normally affect a person’s right to claim benefits. In its earliest incarnation, the welfare state created by Liberal government of the early twentieth century paid pensions only to those whose conduct marked them as the “deserving poor”. That quickly fell by the wayside as welfare became universal and blind to individual merit or misbehaviour. If you meet the needs-tested criteria, you get the cheque. more