Offenders could lose benefits

Benefits cuts could be a sanction against criminals

Criminals who fail to comply with the terms of their community sentences could be deprived of their benefits for up to four weeks.

Under pilot schemes to be run in Derbyshire, Hertfordshire, Teeside and the West Midlands, offenders will be warned when sentenced that certain benefits could be withdrawn if they fail to comply with the conditions of their punishment.

Offenders who choose not to comply with their sentence cannot expect the state to continue to support them regardless

Malcolm Wicks
Work & Pensions Minister

The pilots will run for at least a year and be subjected to independent evaluation to measure their success.

Malcolm Wicks, the work and pensions minister, said the right to benefits carried with it certain responsibilities.

"Offenders who choose not to comply with their sentence cannot expect the state to continue to support them regardless.

"We want offenders to take turning up for their probation supervision as seriously as they take their need to turn up and sign on for benefits.

"The sanction will not come as a surprise to anyone."

Mr Wicks insisted that offenders would not have to live in hardship or lose their benefits.

Responsibilities

Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes said that the move should send out the message that offenders had "clear responsibilities".

"Rigorously enforced community sentences are a real and tough alternative to prison," she said.

Works and Pensions Secretary Alistair Darling first touted using benefits to help enforce community orders when he was social security secretary in 1999.