Sarah Harte: Targeting social welfare payments as punishment will not work
The idea of halting welfare payments as a method of punishment for public disorder would seem to carry with it potentially unintended consequences for the wider society.
You can see the idea smouldering like the cars and buses in the recent riots. We should hit the rioters where it hurts by taking away their social welfare payments or, in a variation on the theme, clawing benefits back through the Free Legal Aid scheme.
Junior Minister Patrick O’Donovan called for rioters to be “punished financially” and have their welfare stopped.
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