SNP refuses to back plan to strip drug addicts of benefits

Published on Sunday 25 January 2009 20:59

A FRESH cross-Border row erupted last night after Scottish ministers made it clear they had no intention of helping the UK government introduce a new policy of stripping drug addicts of their benefits if they failed to seek help.

Labour ministers in London will unveil plans this week to stop benefit payments to crack and heroin addicts unless they agree to try to break their habits. James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said yesterday it was unacceptable for taxpayers' money to be handed over to drug dealers through the benefits system and he wanted to do something about it.

He also accused the SNP administration of "blocking" the UK-wide policy by refusing to help Westminster collate all the relevant information. Mr Purnell said: "The SNP government has complained there is not enough evidence (to push through the plans], yet they are now blocking attempts to reassess the situation in Scotland."

The benefits system is reserved to Westminster and the UK government should be able to make policy in this sector for the whole of the country. But the Scottish Government controls drugs treatment in Scotland and it is using this area to block the UK government's attempts to change the system.

The SNP administration promised more money for drug rehabilitation in its budget last year and this is the direction the government intends to go, using help rather than intimidation to get drug addicts to change their behaviour.

A spokesman for Fergus Ewing, the community safety minister, accused Mr Purnell of using the issue as a "political football". He said: "We don't believe that cutting drug users' benefits will do anything other than lead some back to a life of crime, as well as causing suffering to families and creating a whole new bureaucracy.

"And we don't think drug users currently on treatment waiting lists should make way for those referred by benefits offices."

He added: "Similarly, while we will examine the DWP's proposals with interest, we do not think taking away people's benefits in relation to skills and training would be a productive move."

This is just the latest example in a long line of feuds and spats which has characterised relations between the UK and Scottish governments since the SNP came to power in 2007.

John Swinney, the finance secretary, has had public rows with the Treasury over his plans to introduce a local income tax and, most recently, over the financing of the new Forth bridge.