10 September 2010
Chancellor George Osborne has announced a further £4bn of cuts to the welfare bill, on top of the £11bn outlined in June.
The additional cuts will be outlined in full in next month’s Spending Review and are likely to hit those on out-of-work benefits.
Osborne attacked Britain’s ‘out of control’ welfare budget in an interview with the BBC. ‘People who think it’s a lifestyle choice to just sit on out-of-work benefits – that lifestyle choice is going to come to an end. The money won’t be there,’ he said.
But a spokesman from the Department for Work and Pensions said they were still ‘looking at a range of options for welfare reform and any decisions will be made in the context of the Spending Review’.’ He added: ‘Our reforms will ensure the most vulnerable in our society are protected.’
The proposals immediately came under fire from Labour. Shadow work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper said the government’s own policies were cutting jobs so it would be impossible to get more people off benefits and into work. She added: ‘We know already that the coalition is hitting the poorest carers, pensioners and the most disabled. They urgently need to explain where these extra cuts will fall.’
Her comments were supported by an analysis published today by the Trades Union Congress, which claimed it would take at least 14 years for employment to return to pre-recession levels. Based on the rate at which private sector has created jobs over the past ten years, it might take up to two decades to make up for the number of jobs lost in the recession and anticipated from public spending cuts, the report says.
