George Osborne was careful in his Spending Review to avoid spelling out who would lose from the £11.5bn of cuts he announced. As Ed Balls asked in his impressively fluent response, will there be fewer police officers, fewer nurses, fewer Sure Start centres? Will free museum entry end? We weren’t told today.
But the Chancellor made no attempt to disguise two of the biggest losers: students and the unemployed. In the case of the former, Osborne announced that maintenance grants would be frozen, a real-terms cut of £60m that will fall hardest on low-income undergraduates and that entirely undermines the government’s commitment to social mobility.
In the case of the jobless, Osborne announced that he would introduce “a new seven day wait before people can claim benefits.” It will delight the tabloids, but it’s hard to think of a more callous policy. As charities regularly testify, benefit delays are the biggest reason for food bank referrals. Forcing claimants to wait a minimum of seven days, with every chance of further administrative delay, will inevitably force thousands more to turn to emergency support.
Even after handing the highest earners an average tax cut of £100,000, the Chancellor again had the chutzpah to claim that “we’re all in this together”. But after today’s announcements, it’s even more dangerous to be poor in Osborne’s Britain.
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