Iain Duncan Smith: Crackdown on gangs should happen in all areas at the same time
Quote:
People convicted but not jailed for rioting could be stripped of benefits under plans considered by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith.
He said he would prefer it that such an approach, if adopted, was carried out by the courts and not the government.
Currently, those jailed lose benefits but other punishments, like community service, do not prompt such a loss.
The welfare secretary said he would like to see a system in which benefits were removed as part of the judicial process.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We already accept that if people who are receiving benefits do not, are not prepared to seek work, take the work that's available to them, we take the benefit off them. And if you go to prison we take your benefit off you.
"So what we're looking at is, for criminal charges, should we take the benefit? And the answer is yes."
Mr Duncan Smith said he believed most people would recognise that "the first lesson you learn is that, when you do something willingly and you set out to do it that is criminal, then you must bear the consequences of what you do".
Asked about the welfare secretary's comments, Mr Cameron said: "He has my full support".
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That may be a step too far - prisoners have their welfare taken care of (at considerable expense) but depriving those on community service of benefits serves no purpose except to encourage further "liberation" of others' goods - they should, of course, be deprived of any "privileges" .....
