The axe hovers over welfare (and welfare cheats)

As we know, education and defence have now had their budgets settled – another two ticks alongside the checklist. But that still leaves the third member of the coalition’s trio of sticky settlements unresolved: welfare. The “quad” of David Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander will meet today to bash out the final details. Yet some of their key talking points and decisions have already made it into the papers (especially in this article (£) in the Sunday Times). Here’s my round-up, along with brief comments:

1) Crackdown on welfare cheats. George Osborne sets the tone with his article in the News of the World (now also behind a paywall). “A welfare cheat,” he writes, “is no different from someone who comes up and robs you in the street. It’s your money.” And, with that in mind, Lord Freud has sketched out measures which include £50 spot fines for any instance of welfare fraud and a new taskforce of benefit policemen.