IFS: Osborne should come clean on his welfare cuts

George Osborne this morning said that people should judge him on his track record, as he refused to set out the detail of welfare cuts planned in the next parliament. The IFS’s Paul Johnson didn’t seem to think this was good enough when he gave his verdict on the Budget today. He said:

‘It is now almost two years since he announced his intention of cutting welfare spending by £12bn. Since then the main announcement has been the plan not to cut anything from the main pensioner benefits. We have been told about no more than £2bn of the planned cuts to working age benefits. And remember apparently the “plan” is to have those £12bn of cuts in place by 2017-18. It is time we knew more about what they might actually involve.’

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There is also a risk for the Tories that they don’t do the welfare cuts in the right way when they come to them.