Even The Sun, the ultimate scrounger bashers, thinks Steve Hilton’s latest idea is “daft”, writes Richard Darlington, head of news at the IPPR.
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Richard Darlington is head of news at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
Even The Sun, the ultimate scrounger bashers, thinks Steve Hilton’s latest idea is “daft”.
On page 2 today they quote a source close to Iain Duncan Smith saying the idea to cut another £25bn from the welfare bill is “absolute nonsense”, adding:
“Steve’s gone totally rogue.”
Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott says:
“This is wacky even by Hilton’s standards.”
But let’s take a moment to test the hypothesis. If you really did want to get £25bn cut from the welfare bill, how would you actually do it? Try and do-it-yourself.
Here are your options:
• Breaking down the benefits bill 21 Mar 2012
Even if you entirely scrapped all out of work benefits – jobseeker’s allowance, plus income support and ESA – you’d come up £4bn short. You’d have to almost halve the state pension – not really a vote winner. Or you could entirely scrap Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit or Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.
Like The Sun says, daft. Bye, bye Steve.
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41 Responses to “£25bn welfare cuts? Hilton’s plan is absolute nonsense”
Anonymous
Yes, because wages have increasingly been squeezed by capital. If the trend to the 70’s had held steady, or even stabilised, we’d have been fine – but we’re now in a situation more uneven that the great depression…
And who profits, DJT1million? The 1% don’t need a large middle class.
Anonymous
Well yes. See 101 of my previous posts on corporate welfare.
Blarg1987
You have to also remember before working tax credits etc, a teacher was entitled to a council house, trade unionism was stronger allowing workers to have a better bargoning power so as industry flourtished, prfits were shared between employers and employees, direct taxation was higher yes, but money was invested in projects which encouraged more growth, i.e. concorde, although a flope led on to the creation of airbus which is now a world leader in aviation, shame we sold our share of airbus and now although wings are still manufactured here for the forseabale future, if things get allot tougher out there, how long before other nations bring jobs back home to gain political capital?
Wendy MacKenzie
£25bn welfare cuts? Hilton’s plan is absolute nonsense | Left Foot Forward http://t.co/yaK9Wxql
liane gomersall
RT @leftfootfwd: £25bn welfare cuts? Hilton’s plan is absolute nonsense http://t.co/xbjG81FP