Conservatives Propose a Benefits Card That Would Block Spending on Gambling

Long-term unemployed Universal Credit claimants would receive a cut-rate allowance on a prepaid card that cannot be used for betting, alcohol, cigarettes or cash withdrawals. The opposition's plan puts betting on the same list as tobacco and alcohol.

• The Conservative Party has proposed that Universal Credit claimants who are fit for work and have been unemployed for more than six months without a sufficient work record should receive a "Subsistence Allowance" worth 70% of the standard rate
• The reduced payment would be loaded onto a "Back to Work" prepaid card that would block spending on betting, alcohol and cigarettes, and cash withdrawals, according to ITV News and City AM
• The party estimates the plan would move about 350,000 claimants onto the lower rate and save £538 million a year; sick and disabled claimants and those in work would be exempt
• Labour called the scheme "unworkable", and Reform UK's Robert Jenrick said it "won't even put a dent" in the welfare bill
• The proposal comes days after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch attacked Labour's gambling tax plans as the Treasury weighs a rise in Machine Games Duty

A Card That Pays for Food and Bills, but Not for Bets

The Conservative Party announced on Thursday 24 September that, under a future Conservative government, anyone claiming Universal Credit while out of work would receive six months at the full rate to find a job, ITV News reported. After that, the full rate would be kept only by claimants who had built up a contribution record, with every two years in work buying an extra year at the full rate. Those without that record, and judged fit for work, would move to a "Subsistence Allowance" worth 70p for every pound of the standard rate.

The lower payment would be delivered on a prepaid "Back to Work" card. According to ITV and City AM, the card could be used for food, everyday essentials and bills, but would block the purchase of alcohol and cigarettes, spending on betting, and cash withdrawals. City AM reports that the design draws on Australia, where some welfare payments are made on debit cards that cannot be used to withdraw cash or buy alcohol. People who are sick, disabled or already in work while claiming would be exempt.

The party estimates that about 350,000 claimants would move onto the Subsistence Allowance, saving the taxpayer £538 million a year. The announcement did not say how the card would identify gambling merchants, whether online operators would be blocked alongside betting shops, or who would run the card scheme.

Opponents on Both Sides

Badenoch said: "What is unfair is a system where someone who can work chooses not to and earns more from benefits than someone in a job." Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said Britain "can't afford" millions of people "living on benefits instead of in work".

A Labour spokesperson said the Conservatives "had 14 years to fix our welfare system" and were now proposing "an unworkable new card scheme". Robert Jenrick, Reform UK's Treasury spokesman, said the plan was "so weak the Lib Dems could have authored it". ITV reports that further welfare proposals are expected at the Conservative conference.

Gambling Is Being Written Into Welfare Policy as a Vice, Not an Industry

The detail that matters to the sector is the list. Betting sits beside alcohol and cigarettes as a category of spending a government would forbid to a group of citizens, which is a political framing the industry has long resisted, and it comes from the party that is otherwise arguing against higher gambling taxes. The policy is not a gambling measure: its purpose is to cut the welfare bill, and gambling is one of several restricted categories. But opposition policy tends to travel, and once a restriction on gambling spending is in a party's programme it becomes a reference point for proposals on affordability and harm that the industry does care about.

The Mechanism Is the Hard Part, and It Already Exists in the Banks

Blocking gambling on a card is technically easy for payments that carry a gambling merchant code, which is how UK banks' voluntary gambling blocks already work. It is harder for spending that does not, such as prepaid vouchers, crypto on-ramps or offshore sites that miscode their transactions, which is the channel a determined gambler would find. The Australian comparison cuts both ways, since its Cashless Debit Card was contested for years and ended by the Albanese government, which repealed the scheme in 2023. Without detail on who operates the card and how gambling is identified, the plan's effect on gambling spending cannot be estimated, and the party has not tried.

The Conservatives have put betting alongside alcohol and tobacco in a welfare policy. Whether or not the card reaches a manifesto, that classification is now part of the opposition's programme.