Welfare spending to be cut by an extra £4bn

George Osborne announces further cuts in welfare spending in a BBC interview.

By New Statesman Published 10 September 2010

George Osborne has announcing a further £4bn in cuts, describing the welfare budget as "completely out of control".

In an interview with the BBC, he said: "There are five million people living on permanent out-of-work benefits. That is a tragedy for them and fiscally unsustainable for us as a country - we can't afford it any more.

"Of course, people who are disabled, people who are vulnerable, people who need protection will get our protection, and more.

But 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."

The newly announced cuts are in addition to the £11bn already planned. Combined, the £4bn and £11bn cuts will represent about 6 per cent of total pending on welfare.

Labour has claimed that the cuts will affect the most vulnerable members of society, particularly the elderly and the disabled.

There are also fears that the different regions of the UK are going to handle the cuts differently, with Northern regions less resilient to the pressures.

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Tags: Politics News

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11 comments

Sat, 2010-09-11 22:49 — Eddy S (not verified)

in the black country i can tell you for a fact that tax credits is very heavily abused. you have many people who arrange their lives in order to maximise tax credits and other benefits - believe it or not it goes on all the latest must-have gadgets, private education for the kids! and whole lot more. it is all legal. i'm just saying this as i know loads of relatives, friends etc doing the same.

Sun, 2010-09-12 09:27 — treborc

Yes picking strawberries should keep people employed for what is it! six bloody weeks, and some idiot calls that a job.

We are talking about long term work here people not six weeks picking fruit as self employed students.

Sun, 2010-09-12 09:36 — Luddite (not verified)

Come on we all know people swinging the lead.

Sun, 2010-09-12 10:13 — Martin L (not verified)

the basic test is if you were unemployed for 6 months, would you work for marginally more than benefits - if the answer is no, then you are a hypocrit and a scrounger

Fri, 2010-09-10 10:28 — changsta

Well at least they will have more money to bail the banks out again if need be.

Fri, 2010-09-10 13:11 — Procras (not verified)

Yes, punish the poor. After all ,it was those people who created the financial crisis! And obviously, everyone on welfare is a Dickensian villain, chuckling in their hovel at having their liberty whilst everyone else toils. And yes, get them back to work! What's that, you say? There are no jobs there anyway? Ah, I see....

Sat, 2010-09-11 12:10 — treborc

Being an ex farmer of course i would not employ anyone Martin, I would use an agency to get my workers because I do not want to be paying tax or stamps I want self employed people.

The student or what ever you see working on farms are in the main agency workers who do not work for a min wage they are self employed they work on a system in which they paid by how much work they do, we paid by the sack. It low paid hard bloody work and I can tell you now it's mostly cash in hand.

Sat, 2010-09-11 15:12 — ieatdolphins (not verified)

Before the blitz on benefit recipients, the BBC tax must be scrapped.

This needs to be repeated over and over. To maintain this enormous subsidy to a wealthy de facto media company is preposterous at a time when the needy are going to be hit hard.

Fri, 2010-09-10 16:32 — Rick (not verified)

I'm going to enjoy the inevitable demise of this horrible and vindictive little man. The whole purpose of this government is to take the UK back to the 19th Century. I wouldn't be surprised if they announced the abolition of universal suffrage and took us back to the days when only inbred poshos could decide who governs.

Nice choice of picture by the way. I don't think he could look more hateful.

Fri, 2010-09-10 18:03 — MaxMax (not verified)

Nothing wrong with cutting back from people who are abusing the system. It is important that people who do need it e.g. Disabled, elderly etc don't get impacted. Also, a smarter approach would be to re-allocate the 4+11billion to job creation/finding and training programs.