Nick Clegg rejects ‘Chinese-style’ welfare reforms
ByThe Courier Reporter
Andrew Marr talks to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg appearing on the Andrew Marr Show.
Nick Clegg has launched a furious assault on “Chinese-style” welfare reforms being floated by the Tories.
The Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister condemned the idea of “penalising the young” by limiting benefits to the first two children.
The intervention came after Conservative Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith backed proposals for a fresh crackdown on welfare.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Duncan Smith said he would like EU immigrants to have to wait for up to two years to claim benefits rather than the three-month period introduced on January 1.
He also hailed the idea of limiting child benefit to the first two children as “brilliant”, and said rethinking housing benefit for under-25s could encourage people to take jobs.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Clegg insisted he was “no slouch” on benefit reform.
But he added: “I am not in favour of penalising the young. I am not in favour of a sort of Chinese-style family policy saying the state says it is okay to have two children, it is not okay to have three children.”
Nick Clegg rejects ‘Chinese-style’ welfare reforms
