Welfare that works

<p>All political parties claim to acknowledge that dealing with the UK's fiscal deficit is of paramount importance, but none is proposing anything but very minor cuts to spending on welfare benefits and tax credits. The public spending plans set out by Alistair Darling in his last Budget have departmental spending falling by 11.9 per cent by 2014-15, but spending on welfare benefits and tax credits growing by 4.5 per cent over the same period. Obviously, ongoing productivity improvements mean that more public services can always be squeezed from existing departmental budgets, but these vastly diverging trends look unbalanced and possibly unsustainable.</p>