George Osborne targets cuts to public welfare and the public sector in speech.

07 January 2014

It seems yet again that George Osborne is targeting the poor and vulnerable, insisting that £25bn more cuts must be made in 2015.

During a speech in Birmingham on Monday 6 January, George Osborne, said:

“Do we say: the worst is over; back we go to our bad habits of borrowing and spending and living beyond our means – and let the next generation pay the bill? Or do we say to ourselves: yes, because of our plan, things are getting better. But there is still a long way to go – and there are big, underlying problems we have to fix in our economy.”

The question many will be asking themselves is, where will the Government axe fall in order to get the £25bn worth of cuts?

The answer is clear. Not only will there be yet more cuts to public welfare (an estimated £12bn), but cuts will also be made in the public sector. Such cuts will reduce jobs, increase insecurity and consequentially have a negative impact on terms and conditions of employment and further weaken the enforcement of existing employment rights.

By doing this, the government is putting working age benefits at risk and putting departments who have suffered from previous cuts under immense pressure.

This includes the police, legal aid, universities and government departments like the Environmental Agency, currently battling to save communities from the impact of extreme weather conditions.

The truth is, as pointed out by the Public and Commercial Services Union,

“Public spending is an investment, not a debt. Public servants – the vast majority of whom are low paid – deliver vital services to our communities. The campaign of vilification against public services is motivated by a desire to cut and privatise these vital services. The reality is that there does not need to be a single penny taken away from any public service, or a single job lost.”