Are we really ‘all in this together’?

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IT has been a few days since Chancellor George Osborne tookhis scalpel to the Country’s budget. After announcing a huge budget cut of £81bnto be spread over four years we are just starting to work out how the cuts willaffect out daily lives. After the big headlines of how much will be saved andwhich departments have been hit the most, it will take a little longer to workout just what the cuts will mean.

Osborne has tactfully managed to pass the buck with regardsto frontline local services affecting our daily lives. He has reduced theamount of money available but left local councils with the tricky decisions asto how they make cuts and savings. It will be local Councils having to decidewhether to save a local library or reduce rubbish collections.

Osborne’s Spending Review was to continue the Torieselection theme that, “we are all in this together”. The Chancellor of theExchequer and the Coalition Government have repeatedly said that the cuts willbe based around fairness allowing those with the broadest shoulders carryingthe heaviest burden. But according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)the cuts are more likely to affect the poorest in Britain more then the rich.

The Government has been peddling the view that the budget isa progressive budget but the IFS suggest otherwise. Stating that the SpendingReview is ‘regressive’ the IFS says that it will be families with children who will suffer the most. (Click here

to read the Independent's IFS story).

There are to be cuts to child befit. The EducationMaintenance Allowance (a weekly payment to the poorest over 16 students toenable them to stay in education) is to be axed. There is to be a majorreduction in the amount of money available for social housing. It is estimatedthat the poorest families will loose roughly 7% of their annual income. Add thereforms to the welfare system to this it will again be the poorest hit.  

Pollsters Ipsos MORI say that 59% of those asked agree withthe spending cuts and accept that the savings must be made. However 68% ofthose asked say that they think the cuts need to be a lot slower.

So are the cuts fair? The changes to the welfare state areintended to make it more financially effective to work rather then living offbenefits but where are all these jobs going to come from?