Governments shouldn't get carried away with their rhetoric and impose changes that unravel and worsen things. Oppositions must ensure that every dot and comma of a Government proposal is exposed to scrutiny.
Naturally ministers play to the gallery. We are seeing this over the proposal to cap housing benefit at £26,000 a year, the same as the average wage.
It is completely right that work should pay more than being on benefits. We should avoid what is called moral hazard whereby systems give perverse incentives to people to fiddle rather than contribute to society.
Making such issues part of the yaboo political debate is dangerous though and David Cameron was at it last week with juvenile and arrogant baiting of the Opposition which accepts the principle of a cap but highlights unintended consequences.
The Government's arguments rely on anecdote rather than evidence. Extreme examples make headlines but are a minority and don't represent the reality for most on housing benefit.
Many are in work which raises the issue of low pay. People don't get the benefit directly as it is paid to the landlord which exposes the issue of artificially inflated high rents.
It's argued that people shouldn't expect their lifestyles - living in a better area or having too many children - to be subsidised by the taxpayer. Hard-working people tailor their cloth to suit their circumstances.
Yet some fall on hard times. They started a family but then lose work through no fault of their own. Their children are settled at school and upping sticks at short notice would disrupt their education.
Some ministers understand such dilemmas. I recently asked the Education Secretary if the government had assessed the impact on children's welfare and education of the proposed cap.
He admitted that they hadn't but probably should. I will be pushing the Government to do just that so change is moderate, reasonable and doesn't needlessly create problems such as homelessness which just add costs to the public purse.
Rhetoric is easy. Governing isn't. Cameron should act less high and mighty and ensure he doesn't create victims at the "bottom" of society while fat cats get an easy ride, even if one of them has lost his knighthood and another his bonus. This is too serious for cheap point-scoring.
Newcastle Chronicle and Journal
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