‘Rachel Reeves was wrong to concentrate the pain on disabled people’, according to a leading think tank – although she was right to take action against a backdrop of deteriorating public finances.

The Resolution Foundation has analysed the Chancellor’s Spring Statement and came up with the following bullet points:

• The Government has balanced the books through a mix of £8.3 billion in social security cuts partially offset by a £3.5 billion in increase in spending through other welfare decisions (including the cancellation of some inherited cuts), plus £3.6 billion in new squeezes on day-to-day departmental spending.
• Welfare changes will create a lot of small cash gains in Universal Credit (UC), as well as huge cash losses for those receiving health-related benefits. A non-disabled couple on UC will see their support rise by £370 a year, but a couple on UC where one is disabled and the other is a full-time carer could lose £10,300 a year from PIP, the UC carer element and the UC Health cut (all impacts in 2029-30, but in 2024-25 prices). Even on the Government’s own figures, 3.2 million families will lose an average of £1,720, and 250,000 extra people will fall into poverty as a direct result. Transitional protections are needed to prevent such sharp income shocks.
• The overall impact of all tax and benefit changes taking effect in this Parliament will reduce the incomes of the second-poorest fifth of households by 1.5 per cent, compared to just a 0.6 per cent fall for the richest fifth – but poorer, disabled households are set to take the biggest hit.

So from this organisation’s point of view, Reeves made the clear choice to balance her books – in order to establish economic credibility – by attacking the poor, rather than asking the rich to pay their part.

Her own figures show her favouring the very rich over those who are most in need of government help.

This is not a Labour Chancellor. And calls for a wealth tax are growing every day.

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