Healey pledges welfare bill will fall before election
Chancellor John Healey has said the Government will bring down spending on welfare benefits by the time of the next general election, in his first interview since delivering his first Budget on Wednesday. Asked by BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether the benefits bill would fall before the election, due by 2029, he replied: "There will be a reduction in the benefits bill. We'll do that in a Labour way." Treasury officials later stressed he had set no firm timeframe.
Why welfare is the Budget's unfinished business
The Budget offered short-term help for households facing higher energy prices, paid for in part by higher taxes on banks, savers and landlords, but it did not set out a long-term plan for welfare spending. That bill, covering pensioners and working-age people in poor health, is set to cost more than 11% of the country's economic output this year. Critics, including the Conservative opposition and some bond investors, have argued that rising benefit spending shows a lack of grip on borrowing, while the pound held steady on Thursday.
Young people at the centre
Healey put youth unemployment at the heart of his argument, saying he felt a moral duty to deal with young people who had been written off by previous governments. A government review into young people not in employment, education or training is due to be published next month, and a separate review of the disability benefits system is being finalised. The Chancellor insisted the bill would not be cut crudely, saying: "We have to bring the benefits bill down. You don't do that by crude cuts." How far the pledge survives those reviews will be a defining test of this Parliament.
