The Treasury is disputing that Chancellor John Healey suggested to the BBC that the benefits bill will be cut before the next general election.
When Healey was asked by the Today Programme on Radio 4 whether there would be a cut in the bill before polling day, he said: “There will be, there will be a reduction in the benefits bill, we’ll do that in a Labour way.”
But several Treasury sources took issue with this being interpreted as a promise to do so by the next election, with one suggesting Healey was explicitly attempting to avoid that impression being left.
This suggests, instead, that ministers are not committed to cutting the benefits bill by the next election.
The chancellor told Today: “I have said clearly and the prime minister has said as well, we have to bring the benefits bill down. You don’t do that by crude cuts, especially when people are feeling the cost of living pressures.”
He said two “big reports” next month would help the government “map out the way that we need to change the system for the long run” and the government has “been reducing the rate of increase in the welfare bill”.
Healey said the current system was “unsustainable” and the government had a “moral duty” to help the almost one million young people out of work, education or training.
He said young people would be expected to take up offers of work or training “and that’s the way we can take welfare bills down in the long term”.
