Our welfare reforms will make work pay

At the election, the Conservatives made a promise to you to get Britain working. Now we are delivering on that promise. This Government is on the side of people who want to get ahead. The plans we have announced in the last few days will get people into work and will reform the welfare system to ensure that work always pays and no one can say they are better off on benefits. At the election, we promised to work to reduce the very high marginal tax rates faced by many people on low incomes who want to return to work or increase their earnings. The Welfare Bill I introduced yesterday delivers on that promise. We will start to reduce these rates and simplify the system by introducing the Universal Credit, ensuring it will always pay to work. This policy is particularly focused on helping those in work on low incomes, who are doing the right thing but lose far too much of their take home pay. One million of these low earning households will now receive up to £25 extra every week. We said we would introduce a sanctions regime that removes benefits from those who refuse to work. We have delivered on that promise. If you're unemployed and refuse to take either a reasonable job or to do some work in your community in return for your unemployment benefit, you will lose your benefits for three months. Do it again, you'll lose it for six months. Refuse a third time and you'll lose your unemployment benefits for three years. We will ensure fairness for taxpayers by introducing an annual cap ensuring no family can get more in benefits than the average family earns by going out to work. And we will ensure there will be no more cases of families getting over £100,000 in Housing Benefit by capping it at £400 per week. After 13 years of Labour, the welfare system has left more than one in four adults of working age out of work, almost two million children living in workless households and generations trapped in poverty and dependency. This is a tragedy, but our proposals mark the beginning of a new era of 21st Century Welfare. Universal Credit alone will lift almost a million people out of poverty: 350,000 children and 600,000 adults - something I am deeply proud of. We are offering a vision of a stronger society, a bigger society, a more responsible society and yesterday, the building of that society started in earnest. If you support these plans you can forward this email onto your family and friends. Yours, Iain Duncan Smith Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Comment on Iain's message on the Blue Blog

Can't see the email? Click here to view it in your browser Promoted by Alan Mabbutt on behalf of the Conservative Party, both at 30 Millbank, London, SW1P 4DP