David Cameron speech on Welfare Reform Bill

David Cameron speech on Welfare Reform Bill; Cameron speech SOT - Say for example you're on Jobseeker's allowance and you have the chance to do a few hours work. Today after the first 5 pounds you earn, you lose a pound of benefits for every extra pound you take home. But with the universal credit, you would keep 35p of benefit for every extra pound you take home. And because this rate of benefit withdrawal is the same whatever you earn - it's easy to calculate just how much better off you will be. What's more, because you don't have to start claiming a whole set of new benefits and lose your existing ones when you move into work, it makes the whole process far less risky and daunting. It's simple. You don't need a computer model to work it out any more. The more you work, the better off you will be. And the financial rewards for entering work will be improved significantly, particularly if you're on a low income. Indeed, we estimate that around 1.5 million low-earning workers will benefit from being able to keep more of their earnings as they increase their hours restoring that culture of respect for work with incentives that are simple, clear and right. This is at the heart of the changes we're proposing to welfare - and I pay tribute to Iain Duncan-Smith, and all his hard work, in making this possible. We're not just saving money, we're also making the system so much more progressive helping put more money in the pockets of some of the lowest-paid workers in our country. What's more, by making the system simpler, we will be able to reduce fraud, error and overpayment costs by 1 billion pounds a year. Second, we're introducing tougher sanctions and limits on what people can receive. When it comes to limits, we're going to restrict Housing Benefit rents so they will only cover the cheapest thirty per cent of properties in a local area and limit Housing Benefit in the social rented sector to reflect the size of a family. When it comes to the sanctions, we're als...