McMahon attacks Osborne over ‘unfair’ Budget

OLDHAM MP Jim McMahon has welcomed the Government’s U-turn on benefits for disabled people - but now wants to know how the £4.4 billion hole left in the “unfair” Budget will be filled.

The single largest saving in Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget last week was £4.4 billion from the Department for Work and Pensions by slashing Personal Independence Payments (PIPs), which help people cope with the extra costs of ill-health or disability. The Chancellor did a U-turn on the move, which would have cost nearly 700,000 disabled people an average of £3,500 each. Pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith resigned over the issue
Mr McMahon welcomed the change of heart but now wants to know how the £4.4 billion hole in the Budget will be filled.

The Oldham West and Royton MP said: “I am not taken in by the cynical U-turn by Iain Duncan Smith as this is after all the man who brought in the bedroom tax and has had no qualms in the past about cutting benefits from the most vulnerable.

“I think this is more to do with Duncan Smith’s political ambitions rather than any concerns for the disabled.

“The Chancellor has demonstrated his economical incompetence — he has missed his own politically-motivated economic targets and has clearly come to the decision that the most vulnerable in our society must be punished for this.

“With the Tories now tearing themselves apart, this unfair Budget is falling apart at the seams. George Osborne now needs to urgently clarify, since the reversal on PIP payments, how he will make up for the huge hole in his Budget. He needs to provide reassurances that support for the most vulnerable will be protected.”