In the Spending Review of 26th June 2013, the Chancellor George Osborne MP unveiled a regime of new welfare measures, including a seven-day wait before unemployed people can claim benefits, as he identified an extra £11.5billion in spending cuts for the first year after the 2015 general election.
The continuing austerity will lead to the loss of automatic pay rises for civil servants, the effective abolition, by introducing a temperature test, of winter fuel payments for British pensioners living abroad, and cuts across Whitehall that will see the Communities and Local Government department's current spending budget cut by 10%.
The Chancellor tried to show that the coalition is committed to promoting growth when he said that Danny Alexander, his Liberal Democrat deputy, would unveil £100billion in infrastructure projects on 27th June 2013.
The Chancellor announced that a cap would be introduced from April 2015 on Annually Managed Expenditure (the parts of spending that are not cash-limited). This will mean that housing benefit, tax credits, disability benefits and pension benefits will be included in the cap. But Osborne made it clear that the state pension would be exempt.
The Chancellor confirmed that the schools, health and overseas aid budgets would be protected. he said 33billion would be spent by 2015/16 to ensure that the National Health Service and local authorities worked together to improve the provision of social care.
A copy of the full briefing paper can be downloaded from HERE.