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Telegraph.co.uk
Sunday 23 June 2013
Osborne to cap welfare spending
George Osborne will unveil a fundamental overhaul of spending this week by outlining plans for limits on previously uncontrolled parts of the public finances, such as housing benefit.
Name game: Mr Osborne adjusted his own, of course, opting for George instead of Gideon Photo: REUTERS
By Philip Aldrick
9:15PM BST 22 Jun 2013
33 Comments
Following a warning that “austerity” will be a feature of the economy until well after the next election, caps on areas of “annually managed expenditure” (AME), which includes the debt interest, welfare and state pension bills, are to be introduced. It is hoped the caps will impose a discipline on spending that was lost after Labour created the separate AME budget in 1998.
The curbs will be announced alongside the Spending Review for 2015-16 on Wednesday, when the Chancellor will provide details on £11.5bn of planned departmental cuts.
Mr Osborne has fought bitter battles with the Defence and Home Secretaries to secure the savings, which will be key to meeting the Government’s five-year deficit reduction target.
Alongside the savings and AME limits, the Chancellor will disclose how this year’s £50bn capital budget will be spent and will confirm plans to spend an extra £15bn on infrastructure in the next Parliament.
The announcement will come a day before Britain’s double-dip recession is erased from the history books. The Office for National Statistics publishes its Blue Book of GDP revisions on Thursday, which is expected to show the economy flat-lined in the first three months of 2012 rather than shrank by 0.1pc.
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The ONS is expected to confirm first-quarter growth this year of 0.3pc.
Despite improvements in the economy, forecasters warned that the Spending Review will herald the start of years more austerity.
The Chancellor’s plan to target AME spending was disclosed in the Budget. Limits are likely to be set over three or five-year periods to oblige the Government to respond if spending started to spiral out of control.
The Chancellor has stressed the limits will not apply to the “automatic stabilisers”, so unemployment benefit and state pensions are unlikely to be affected. Labour has indicated it would impose a cap on certain benefits.
Sunday 23 June 2013
Osborne to cap welfare spending
George Osborne will unveil a fundamental overhaul of spending this week by outlining plans for limits on previously uncontrolled parts of the public finances, such as housing benefit.
Name game: Mr Osborne adjusted his own, of course, opting for George instead of Gideon Photo: REUTERS By Philip Aldrick
9:15PM BST 22 Jun 2013
33 Comments Following a warning that “austerity” will be a feature of the economy until well after the next election, caps on areas of “annually managed expenditure” (AME), which includes the debt interest, welfare and state pension bills, are to be introduced. It is hoped the caps will impose a discipline on spending that was lost after Labour created the separate AME budget in 1998.
The curbs will be announced alongside the Spending Review for 2015-16 on Wednesday, when the Chancellor will provide details on £11.5bn of planned departmental cuts.
Mr Osborne has fought bitter battles with the Defence and Home Secretaries to secure the savings, which will be key to meeting the Government’s five-year deficit reduction target.
Alongside the savings and AME limits, the Chancellor will disclose how this year’s £50bn capital budget will be spent and will confirm plans to spend an extra £15bn on infrastructure in the next Parliament.
The announcement will come a day before Britain’s double-dip recession is erased from the history books. The Office for National Statistics publishes its Blue Book of GDP revisions on Thursday, which is expected to show the economy flat-lined in the first three months of 2012 rather than shrank by 0.1pc.
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30 May 2013
The ONS is expected to confirm first-quarter growth this year of 0.3pc.
Despite improvements in the economy, forecasters warned that the Spending Review will herald the start of years more austerity.
The Chancellor’s plan to target AME spending was disclosed in the Budget. Limits are likely to be set over three or five-year periods to oblige the Government to respond if spending started to spiral out of control.
The Chancellor has stressed the limits will not apply to the “automatic stabilisers”, so unemployment benefit and state pensions are unlikely to be affected. Labour has indicated it would impose a cap on certain benefits.
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