David Cameron's renegotiation put the removal of benefits from EU migrants at its heart and set in motion a horrible bidding war.
The big thing is sanctions," said Alf Dummer, who works at a soup kitchen in Newcastle, referring to the removal of benefits payments as a way of punishing claimants for failing to meet benefits conditions.
Where schemes are administered by social workers there can be what beneficiaries see as potential coercion; failure to follow the social worker's advice may be thought to lead to the reduction or removal of benefits.
Coupled with the removal of benefits for the under-21s, which will give them the choice of "earning or learning"—which really means poverty or student debt Cameron is trying to turn Britain into a place where there's a badly paid job for everyone, whether they want it or not.
The removal of child benefit – a universal benefit – allows more people to feel they are getting nothing from the current system.
Labour will now have to decide whether it can stomach this in pursuit of appearing tough on welfare, along with the lower benefit cap and removal of housing benefit for under-21s.
The changes to housing benefit and the benefit cap are the most obvious examples, or the removal of child benefit from higher income families.
The government has pledged to create 3m more funded by a cut to the welfare cap and removal of housing benefit from jobless 18- to 21-year-olds – but where will it find the companies to take them?
Welfare changes announced in 2011 and 2012 included the bedroom tax, which reduced housing benefit for those living in properties classed as larger than needed, the removal of child benefit where one parent earned more than £50,000, and the cap on the total amount of benefits claimable by working-age people.
On top of the limitations imposed by the Bedroom Tax, benefits cap, abolition of tax credits and removal of housing benefit entitlement for under 21s, it further threatens the city's ability to build and let affordable stock.
