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Spending Review / Autumn Statement 2015
Already being reported that the govt is poised to breach its own welfare cap:
George Osborne has set in train plans to breach the Treasury’s welfare cap after deciding it cannot find enough welfare savings to compensate for the decision to slow the pace of cuts to tax credits.
The chancellor has held discussions with the Department of Work and Pensions to arrange a Commons vote that would give the government permission to breach the cap.
The vote will be passed by MPs but the decision is likely to be seen as a political embarrassment for Osborne since he largely invented the self imposed cap in the last parliament as a trap to show Labour is lax on welfare spending.
Chancellor says £12bn of welfare savings will be delivered in full, “and delivered in a way that helps families as we make the progression to a national living wage”.
Tax credit cuts abandoned ... Chancellor says tax credits are being phased out anyway when universal credit comes in.
Chancellor confirms that the welfare cap will be breached in the early years of the parliament .... but that it will be met in the later years ...
Housing benefit to be capped at LHA level for new tenants in the social sector.
No more housing benefit for those who leave the country for more than a month.
2 per cent social care levy on council tax to provide £2bn funding for social care
Basic State Pension to rise by £3.35 to £119.30 a week from April 2016
So Tax Credits changes abandoned but Universal Credit changes to go ahead.
I really want to see the details about transitional protection.
Expansion of JSA-type conditionality to a million more people ..... not clear who .... ESA/WRAG?!
Edit: this from the main docs ...
[ Edited: 25 Nov 2015 at 01:59 pm by shawn mach ]‘Universal Credit will extend the same Jobcentre Plus support that people on Jobseeker’s Allowance get to 1.3 million additional claimants who currently get little or no support, by 2020’
2016/2017 tax credit rates and thresholds:
Child benefit rates:
Spending Review and Autumn Statement in full @
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-and-autumn-statement-2015-documents
Very confused by the sums - GO started his speech saying that he will still find 12 billion welfare savings by 2020. The policy costings document says that reversing the tax credits changes on taper rate and earnings disregard will cost 9.37 billion. The additional welfare savings add up to 3 billion at the most.
That’s a discrepancy of over 6 billion, or am I missing something?
DWP to become smaller & more efficient .... spending 22% less on admin, 34% less on tech & occupying 20% less estate
The IFS has just published its presentation of its post-Spending Review/Autumn Statement analysis