Government agrees £12bn welfare cuts – hours after 250,000 protest against austerity
21 Jun 2015
On the way are more nasty, destructive cuts to things ordinary people care about – the NHS, the welfare state, education and public services.
Paul Cockerton & James Tapsfield
George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith have thrashed out plans to slash another £12 billion a year from the benefits bill.
The Chancellor and Work and Pensions Secretary reiterated their determination to swing the axe just hours after a major anti-austerity protest on the streets of London.
The two men are believed to have agreed details of the cuts pledged in the Tory manifesto over the last few days – putting paid to rumours that they could be scaled back or delayed.
They have already said the household benefits cap will be reduced from £26,000 to £23,000 a year and housing benefit and tax credits are expected to bear the brunt.
However, David Cameron has pledged full protection for child benefit and pensioner benefits.
Writing in the Sunday Times, Mr Osborne and Mr Duncan Smith insisted they had inherited a “crackers” welfare system from Labour in 2010.
Repeating the claim that Britain makes up 7% of all the welfare spending globally despite having just 4% of GDP, the pair said the arrangements had “incentivised people to live a life on benefits”.
They argued that the new universal credit would rationalise the “Byzantine” network of means-tested payments and ensure it is always in the interests of those on benefits to work more.
The coalition axed £21billion from the welfare budget, but Mr Osborne and Mr Duncan Smith warned that it will still make up 12.7% of spending in 2019-20.
“It took many years for welfare spending to spiral so far out of control, and it’s a project of a decade or more to return the system to sanity,” they wrote.
“This government was elected with a mandate to implement further savings from the £220 billion welfare budget.
“For a start, we will reduce the benefit cap, and have made clear that we believe we need to make significant savings from other working-age benefits.
“We will set out in detail all the steps we will take to bring about savings totalling £12 billion a year in next month’s Budget and at the spending review in the autumn.
“As before, all our reforms will have these central aims: to ensure the welfare system promotes work and personal responsibility, while putting expenditure on a sustainable footing.
“Welfare reform is fundamentally about opportunity and changing lives, supporting families to move from dependence to independence – a vital point, because without social mobility there can be no social justice. It is the right thing to do.”
Organisers claimed up to 250,000 protesters took to the streets of London, demanding an end to the government’s austerity programme.
The crowd was addressed by comedian Russell Brand and singer Charlotte Church among others.
The protest was organised by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, an umbrella group with support from trade unions, anti-war protesters and some Labour and Green Party politicians.
A spokesman said: “With the Tories going it alone in Government we know exactly what to expect.
“More nasty, destructive cuts to the things ordinary people care about – the NHS, the welfare state, education and public services.”
There were smaller marches in other cities, including Glasgow and Liverpool, throughout the day.
