Reports this morning say that the Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to announce a additional £500m of spending cuts when she makes her spring statement today
The additional cuts come after the Office for Budget Responsibility rejected the estimate of savings from changes already announced as part of the £1.6 billion shortfall in the figures
The Chancellor will claim that her economic plans have been blown off course by “a changing world” when she makes her Spring Statement
Among the additional measures it is forecast that Universal credit incapacity benefits for new claimants will now be frozen until 2030 rather than increased in line with inflation.
There will also be a small reduction in the basic rate of universal credit in 2029.
Analysis released at the weekend by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation ahead of the Chancellor’s spring statement showed families worse off by £1400 by 2030.
This would mean missing the PM’s living standards milestone and could be the first govt since 1955 to see a fall in living standards across a parliament.
