Osborne to miss deficit reduction target by at least two years, new figures suggest

Government borrowing will overshoot the chancellor's target by £8bn this financial year, according to predictions published today by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Government borrowing will overshoot the chancellor’s target by £8bn this financial year, according to predictions published today by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

On this forecast, the deficit will not be eliminated until 2018.

The deficit will come in at £117bn for this year – or 7.4 per cent of GDP – above the £109bn and 6.9 per cent predicted by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) in December and significantly greater than the 5.8 per cent the OBR forecast in March 2012.

And lest we forget, in his first emergency budget George Osborne said:

“The formal mandate we set is that the structural current deficit should be in balance in the final year of the five-year forecast period, which is 2015-16 in this budget.”

This could ultimately mean that a Labour government is left to clear up the mess left behind by the coalition. The irony.

15 Responses to “Osborne to miss deficit reduction target by at least two years, new figures suggest”

  1. LB

    So perhaps a more sensible question, is who losses and my how much?

    1. State second pension. It’s going. Anyone with a state second pension is going to lose the lot.

    2. State pension. Lets look at the proposed 140 a week. If you currently have an income below 140 a week, you will gain or lose nothing. Nothing will change for you.

    If you have other income, you will lose the state pension all together. That’s why the BBC and MPs are currently doing the rounds saying the state pension is welfare. Just like the noises over winter fuel, bus passes, … They are trying to make it that even though you paid and are entitled, you are greedy for wanting what you’ve paid lots of money to the state for.

    3. Civil servants.

    Push comes to shove, given a choice between paying civil servants pensions, and the state pension and services, the civil servants will lose.

    4. The young. They will be completely shafted.

    5. Private or company pension?

    There is the Hungarian option. The state takes the lot. EU has declared that legal. Currently being done all over the EU, to varying extents.

    Then there’s the Greek option. Namely very large cuts to the state pension.

    Housing benefit? That’s going to be axed even more.

    6. Migration?

    Doesn’t work. If you allow people below 40K a year, they don’t pay more than 11K in tax, which is average government spend. You just make the problem bigger.

    A sensible solution here is to restrict migration to just those earning over 40K, for as long as they meet that requirement.

  2. Sensible Lefty

    I’ll get back to you when I’ve got it all worked out.

  3. Newsbot9

    Pensions are under welfare spending, for accounting. This is for basically historical reasons. Your impassioned shilling against pensions is nonsense.

    Of course you insist on making millions homeless as well, and want to isolate the UK and lost tens of billions of trade. Of course you need to block every tourist, business visitor and student, they might spend money here!

  4. Newsbot9

    Of course they can, you’re simply trying to rob people. You keep ignoring the very average pension debt as you focus on crippling the economy and forcing people into living on the streets. That nasty economy is way too strong for you!

  5. LB

    Cool, I look forward to it.

    Will make a change from a ranting mejah studies lecturer. 🙂

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