UK Clamping Down on Welfare
The Daily Mail reports that the British government is making extensive cuts to their welfare programs:
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said today that no decision had been made on restricting benefits as the Coalition prepares to slash £13billion from the universal welfare system.
Under plans being drawn up by the Government middle-class families face losing child benefit and the winter fuel allowance, senior sources have revealed.
The drastic cuts would end seven decades of state handouts for all regardless of income – and cost a typical family with two children more than £1,700 a year.
Any reduction in benefits for pensioners will provoke claims of betrayal after David Cameron denounced as ‘pure lies’ Labour claims during the election campaign that he would axe payouts such as the winter fuel allowance.
But Mr Clegg, speaking as the coalition marked 100 days in power, said no final decisions had been made.
The Deputy Prime Minister said the Coalition will try to boost social mobility by 'improving people's lives' rather than giving them handouts.
He also confirmed that former minister Alan Milburn has been appointed as the Government's independent reviewer on social mobility.
Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has won Treasury approval to spend £3billion on the up-front costs of creating a universal benefit system which would ensure that those in work are always better off than those on welfare.
Yet he has also been asked to slash his department’s budget by £10billion over the next four years – signifying a total of £13billion in benefit cuts.
