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
Oh they’ve got that, they’re working to set up “Universal” benefit to harshly punish anyone who tries that. And they’ll still, in many cases, have to still be visiting the JobCenters and begging not to be sanctioned while working…
John Böttcher
Pick your £25bn welfare cuts now! Cut the cake! http://t.co/abq1ZY40
Chris Salter
RT @leftfootfwd: £25bn welfare cuts? Hilton’s plan is absolute nonsense http://t.co/ppmQhUgW #ppnews #wrb
WorkfareProtest
RT @leftfootfwd: £25bn welfare cuts? Hilton’s plan is absolute nonsense http://t.co/ppmQhUgW #ppnews #wrb
OccupyOlympics2012
RT @leftfootfwd: £25bn welfare cuts? Hilton’s plan is absolute nonsense http://t.co/ppmQhUgW #ppnews #wrb