The Trades Union Congress (TUC) Publishes a New Report Detailing the Impact of the Coalition’s Current Spending Cuts
The TUC recently published a new research report in which it exhibits the cumulative impacts of the Coalition Government’s current spending cuts. The TUC contends that “some of the UK’s poorest families have been hit by more than 10 unfair spending cuts during the first 100 days of the new Government…”. Their research provides a detailed breakdown of current public spending cuts and shows which cuts have had the biggest impacts on poor families in the UK.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of cuts that the TUC believes are unfair to poor families:
· Housing Benefit – Approximately 1 million households will loose around £624 every year as a result of the alterations to housing benefit.
· Homes and Communities Agency – Reductions to programme funding including Kickstart, affordable housing, gypsies and traveller support and Housing Market Renewal (improvements to housing in deprived areas). Cuts in this area total around £450 million.
· Young Person’s Guarantee – Approximately £450 million has been divested from the Guarantee, which will be dissolved in April 2011. This was a pledge to guarantee unemployed people access to a job, training or work after six months of unemployment.
· Working Neighbourhood Fund – £50 million has been cut from this fund, which aimed to help unemployed in socially deprived areas move into work.
TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, said: “Before the election we were told that cuts could be achieved through efficiency savings, that the most vulnerable would be protected and front-line services reserved. These pledges have not lasted 10 days.”
Barber went on to say: “…these cuts are doing the opposite of what the Government intends. Far from securing economic recovery, they are slamming on the economic brakes. Growth will be well below potential an there is a growing risk of a double-dip recession.”
