The Philpott case has triggered a political debate in the United Kingdom about welfare culture as the government, trying to rein in the budget deficit, brings in a major shake-up of the system this week. It includes capping the amount someone can claim at £26,000 a year the national average household annual income.
The Times newspaper reported welfare payments plus the wages of his wife and girlfriend paid to his account were giving Philpott the equivalent of a £100,000-a-year salary before tax, putting him in the top two percent of earners. He lost £1,000 a month when his "mistress" moved out. The Chancellor George Osborne, who coincidentally was visiting Derby today, said: "It's right we ask questions as a government, a society and as taxpayers, why we are subsidising lifestyles like these."
The Labour party though criticised Mr Osborne for "linking Philpott's crimes with the debate about welfare and George Osborne should not be doing so". Shadow Work and Pensions Minister Stephen Timms said: "Mick Philpott's crimes were terrible. Everyone should be clear that responsibility for these evil acts rests with him and the others sentenced today. It is wrong to link those acts with the debate about welfare and George Osborne should not be doing so, even implicitly".
Mr Timms Continued: "Millions of people including pensioners and the disabled, people in work and out of work, receive benefits and tax credits. The Government needs to recognise that they are as shocked and disgusted by the callous killing of these children as anyone else in Britain. We need action to tackle the scourge of long term-unemployment, which is why Labour is calling for a Compulsory Jobs Guarantee, but today is not the day to seek to divide people in this way and Mr Osborne should not be cynically doing so."
The Liberal Democrat MP and former Education Minister Sarah Teather waded into the row letting Mr Osborne have it with both barrels, saying: "I am shocked and appalled that George Osborne has stooped so low as to make a crude political point out of the tragic deaths of six young children. It's one thing for a tabloid newspaper to make unsophisticated, clumsy political arguments, quite another for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to join in. It is deeply irresponsible for such a senior politician to seek to capitalise on public anger about this case, and in doing so demonise anybody who receives any kind of welfare support. Mr Philpott should be held fully accountable for his awful actions and it is reprehensible to seek to explain it away by blaming the welfare system which Osborne has been so happy to wage war on. On Tuesday, when answering a question about living on £53 a week, Osborne said that it's not sensible to reduce the debate to an argument about one individual's set of circumstances. It makes you wonder what has changed in 48 hours."
