‘Race to the bottom’: £15billion welfare cuts will cause ‘enormous hardship,’ says economist

‘The Treasury’s proposed £15 billion worth of cuts to welfare spending will fuel a sharp rise in poverty, “enormous hardship” and a “race to the bottom led by the government,” an anti-austerity economist warns.

Treasury chiefs have called upon the Department for Work and Pensions to identify £15 billion worth of welfare cuts – £3 billion more than the Tories proposed during the general election race.

They have directly approached Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith, suggesting child tax credits and working tax credits could be sources for these cuts. Details of the scale of the Treasury’s austerity agenda surfaced on BBC Two’s Newsnight Monday night program.’

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