Welsh Conservative leader says benefits cap is 'fair'

Plans to impose a lower benefits cap outside London is fair, the Welsh Conservative leader has said.

Andrew RT Davies said welfare payments should not give people more than they could earn through work.

The UK government wants to reduce the household benefit cap - the total amount of benefits a family can claim.

Ahead of Wednesday's budget, Chancellor George Osborne said that the cap would fall from £26,000 to £23,000 in London, and even lower in the rest of Britain.

The BBC understands that the cap outside London will be reduced to £20,000 per household.

Speaking on Sunday Politics Wales, Mr Davies said: "If people are in employment, paying their taxes, paying into the system, they want to see a fair and just system.

"Over the lifetime of the last Labour government that fairness was driven out of the system and there was a perception of inequality in that it paid to stay at home rather than go to work."

Mr Davies said a Welsh Tory commitment to pay the living wage to public sector employees in Wales showed "we want to deliver a route into work that pays good quality wages".

He said the private sector should "over time... move to a living wage culture".