Healey promises ‘reduction’ in welfare spending before election Politics John Healey has promised there will be a “reduction” in the welfare bill before the next election despite the Budget not addressing huge payments on benefits and pensions. Healey told broadcasters on Thursday morning that the government was “ready to take some pretty tough decisions” to rein in spending although he echoed his predecessors in [...]
A breathing space Budget? This is asphyxiation Economics If there were treats in John Healey’s pre-Halloween Budget they were hidden in a gloopy soup of tricks. Forget the talk about a low-key, ‘do no harm’ fiscal event; the Chancellor has delivered a mess of new interventions, subsidies, tax rises, quangos and complications against a backdrop of truly terrifying economic forecasts. Let’s start with [...]
Tories call for urgent action on youth unemployment in Budget Politics Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately has said the government needs to “take action in the Budget” to “back businesses to employ more young people”, referring the one million young people who are not in employment, education or training (Neets). Talking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Whately said the Labour party have [...]
Benefits and pensions for foreign nationals ‘cost £23bn’ October 14, 2026 Spending on benefits and pensions for foreign nationals totalled about £23bn in 2025, according to a leading think tank, amid calls for a rethink on the impcat of immigration and the welfare system. The Centre for Social Justice estimated that the UK government spent about £23bn on benefits, pensions and child-related support for non-British nationals [...]
Despite what they say, the Tories are still in hock to their greying base October 8, 2026 Badenoch is developing a coherent policy agenda, but without a plan for helping Nick, 30 ans, the Tories will remain a party only for the old.
MPs are caught in a welfare catch-22 October 8, 2026 The more a constituency depends on welfare, the stronger the incentive for its MP to leave it alone, whichever party they sit for.
Governments should spend more on welfare to tackle cost of living, says IMF October 6, 2026 Governments across the world should prioritise targeted welfare support for low income households over broader measures like tax cuts to ease the cost of living, the International Monetary Fund has said. Policymakers should do more to protect vulnerable households from surges in inflation caused by geopolitical events like the Iran war, the IMF says in [...]
Tory welfare crackdown would ban benefit spending on alcohol and cigarettes September 23, 2026 Scores of benefit claimants would receive their welfare payments on a ‘Back To Work’ card that bans spending on alcohol, cigarettes or betting under plans announced by the Conservatives. Under a new crackdown on the welfare system, unemployed people on benefits will see their payments fall by 30 per cent. Those who are on Universal [...]
Will our fiscal psychodrama never end? September 22, 2026 I’m sure it wasn’t always like this. There was a time, really not that long ago in the grand scheme of things, when trying to predict the contents of an upcoming Budget was limited to dedicated policy wonks and Westminster’s most dogged journalists. These days, fiscal speculation is a major occupation for several months of [...]
Burnham insists defence uplift ‘can’t come at expense’ of welfare September 9, 2026 Andy Burnham has said an uplift in defence spending will not come “at the expense” of benefits. During Prime Minister’s Questions, Burnham said “national security can’t come at the expense of social security” in response to attacks from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch over the absence of plans to get defence spending up to three per [...]