Lord Freud on the high costs of welfare

In an interview with Channel 4 News, Lord David Freud, minster for welfare reform discussed the high costs of the welfare system:

 "The direct cost of our welfare system will shock you. There is fraud and error in excess every year of £5bn. We disregard nearly a billion and it actually costs £2.5bn to administer.

"There is nearly £9bn of cost in a very inefficient, broken system that we need to start driving down.

"Mending the system is the priority that we are going to set ourselves in time for the autumn spending review.

"What we are looking at is reforming and simplifying the system so that people are always incentivised to work and that they are rewarded for doing so."

To view the interview in full, please visit the channel four website.