So where exactly are the spending cuts coming from?

摘要

There are few places for the Chancellor to turn when it comes to squeezing out more spending cuts. He could try the NHS - which this year will spend £141bn - or he could focus on the educational budget of £99bn, personal social services at £30bn or defence at £45bn. The trouble is the first two are ring-fenced and if he cuts more off the third it simply creates more costs on the NHS, and as for the fourth the Government is committed to spending 2% of GDP on defence. So that leaves him with welfare and pensions, or what the Treasury calls in the Budget 'social protection', and not surprisingly its £232bn bill is a sight for the Chancellor's sore eyes. Its main components are as follows: pensions and age-related benefits come to £95bn, child tax and working tax credits are a further £30bn, housing benefit £26bn, disability benefits £37bn and jobseekers' allowance £6bn. A 5% cut in the total bill would yield all the £12bn the Conservatives pledged to take off welfare.