Reform of the welfare system

I've had a look through the Prime Minister's discussion points on reform of the welfare system.

I am not in favour of limiting housing benefits by age or any other factor as I think universal benefits need to be universal otherwise social cohesion becomes impossible. 

The upper earnings limit on living in a council house is not a real issue - council house tenants on more than £60,000 are ridiculous, but presumably they know they are ridiculous, and trade union officials on fat cat salaries but still living in social housing should be ashamed of themselves.

Time limiting benefits is not really acceptable - claimants either qualify for benefits or they do not.

Equally restricting income support to families with less than three children does not really make sense.

The various proposed measures surrounding benefits for unemployed people are individually fairly innocuous, but generally I am not in favour of making people jump through hoops before they qualify for benefits, and I have heard many reports of petty officials bullying claimants by using similar tactics.

Absolutely in favour of the proposed changes to council waiting list allocations - only local people should qualify, and no-one born outside the United Kingdom should be given social housing.

No benefits should be paid to people living abroad - and that includes WOOPie pensioners retiring to the sun belt.

Not really in favour of welfare benefits in kind - it is too much like charity.

Regional benefit levels only make sense if welfare policy is devolved down to county councils - if it is a national benefit it must have a national standard.

And although I appreciate the need to save money, and absolutely condemn the way Gordon Brown gerrymandered the tax and benefit system, I think there may be a case in these exceptional times for raising income tax.  It seems to be a taboo subject across all parties.  It would be the fairest and most straight-forward way of dealing with the financial shortfall, and would wrong-foot the Labour party.