Reforms critics talking rubbish, says Osborne

Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, drinks tea with Morrisons supermarket distribution centre employees in Sittingbourne.

London Evening Standard/London

George Osborne yesterday vowed to “use every penny” to support hard-working people as he launched a ferocious fight-back against critics of the government’s benefit cuts.

The chancellor hit out at “ill-informed rubbish” condemning the coalition’s welfare reforms. He argued that an overall cap on benefits of £26,000 a year was regarded by most working people as “pretty high”.

Osborne also said that the row over benefits was a “big political fight”, which will be seen as laying out the battle lines for the general election.

In a speech in Kent to workers of supermarket Morrisons, whose slogan is “every penny matters”, Osborne said that the tax and benefit changes coming in this month were “all about making sure that we use every penny we can to back hard-working people who want to get on in life”.

Defending the cap, new restrictions on housing benefit, and many benefits rising by 1% a year, Osborne added: “With all our welfare changes, we’re simply asking people on benefits to make some of the same choices working families have to make every day.

“To live in a less expensive house. To live in a house without a spare bedroom unless they can afford it. To get by on the average family income.”

After heavy criticism from church leaders and Labour, the chancellor argued that he was seeking to inject fresh “hope” into communities with tax and benefit changes aimed at encouraging people back into work.

He also defended cutting the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p, and trumpeted the starting threshold for paying income tax rising to £10,000 next year and corporation tax going down to 23p on Monday.

But ministers were accused of a “warped sense of social justice” as thousands of families in London will be hit by the overall cap from April 15. The restriction is being first introduced in four boroughs in the capital, Bromley, Croydon, Enfield and Haringey before being rolled out across the country.

“This is a worrying time for many Londoners as many benefit changes begin, and the first families will then be hit by the overall benefit cap in a few weeks. Some will be hundreds of pounds worse off each week,” said Sarah Teather, a former education minister and Liberal Democrat MP for Brent Central.

“Ministers who claim that imposing sudden and draconian cuts on families with children is about ‘fairness’ have a warped sense of social justice frankly. It is no wonder churches of all denominations have been queuing up to attack the government.”