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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