The Government will have to spend £2bn more on benefits than it planned a year ago because of delays to two flagship projects, official documents have revealed.{jcomments on}

Figures in the Office for Budget Responsibility's forecasts, published alongside the Autumn Statement, threaten to undermine George Osborne's much-heralded welfare cap, which is at the heart of his bid to slash state spending over the next five years. The figures reveal that processing delays have added to the welfare bill.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow Work and Pensions minister, claimed the statistics were another example of what she called "Tory welfare waste".

The OBR's economic outlook reveals the Department for Work and Pensions will have to spend £1bn more on incapacity benefits this year than planned a year ago, because of delays to the process of assessing people for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), and a further £1bn more on disability-benefit spending than planned because of delays to the roll-out of Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

For the full story visit the Independent

Comments

Write comments...
or post as a guest
Loading comment... The comment will be refreshed after 00:00.

Be the first to comment.

Free PIP, ESA & UC Updates!

Delivered Fortnightly

Over 110,000 claimants and professionals subscribe to the UK's leading source of benefits news.

 
iContact
We use cookies

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.