‘Taxpayer money lines drug dealers’ pockets’
By politics.co.uk staff
Taxpayer money will go to drug dealers unless the Tories back plans to force drug addict benefit recipients to enter treatment, a Labour MP has said.
Charlotte Atkins, MP for Staffordshire Moorlands, said the Tories were wrong to let drug users receive benefits without rehabilitation.
Providing addicts with money but not requiring treatment was a policy which “ends up lining drug dealers’ pockets,” she argued.
“It is wrong that we hand over benefit money to people knowing that the money will end up in the pockets of drugs dealers,” she said.
“There are a number of problem drug users in our area who receive either jobseekers’ allowance or incapacity benefit. We should be encouraging these addicts to get clean – its better for them and its better for Staffordshire Moorlands.”
Both jobseekers’ allowance and incapacity benefit are paid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Work and pensions secretary, James Purnell, said the government would give people the chance to turn their lives around but in return expected them to get treatment for their addiction.
He said: “The Tories cannot sit back and say we should do nothing.
“Rather than handing out benefits with no questions asked, they must support Labour’s plans to give real help to vulnerable people to kick the habit.”
The DWP estimates that there are more than 180,000 crack and heroin addicts across the UK currently receiving benefits.
The Conservatives were unavailable for comment.
