TORY Chancellor Osborne, in his Autumn Statement delivered to parliament yesterday, launched war on the unemployed, students, youth and the state pension.
Rather than announcing any relief to the barrage of cuts that the working class has suffered in the last three years, the Chancellor announced a stepping up of cuts with a programme of permanent austerity.
He said: ‘I set out our long-term economic plan in our emergency budget. That plan restores stability in a fiscal crisis but it is also designed to address the deep-seated problems of unsustainable spending, uncompetitive taxes and unreformed public services to which there are no quick fixes.
‘I can report the hard truth that the job is still not yet done.’
He continued: ‘And today we make more difficult decisions.’
Attacking the state pension he announced: ‘Based on the latest life-expectancy figures, applying that principle will mean an increase in the state pension age to 68 in the mid 2030s and 69 in the mid 2040s’.
However, it won’t stop at 69! He added that the Pensions Bill currently going through parliament ‘puts in place a review of the pension age every five years’.
Attacking unemployed youth he announced: ‘Without basic Maths or English there is a limited chance that any young person will be able to stay off welfare, so we are taking a new approach, starting with anyone aged 18-21 signing on with out these basic skills will be required to take training from day one or loose their benefits.
‘If they are still unemployed after six months they will have to start their apprenticeship, take work experience or do a community work placement and if they don’t turn up they will lose their benefits.’
He warned: ‘A culture of worklessness becomes entrenched where young people can leave school and go straight onto the dole with nothing expected in return. That culture is coming to an end in our welfare system.’
Announcing further attacks on students he said: ‘Next year we will provide 30,000 extra student places and the following year we will abolish the cap on student numbers altogether.’
‘…The new loans will be financed by selling the old student loan books’ to private debt collectors.
On privatising education, the Chancellor said: ‘Let me make it clear that the expansion of Free Schools and Academies has the full backing of this Chancellor.’
And attacking the unemployed, single parents, the disabled and homeless, he announced: ‘We will need to introduce a new cap on total welfare spending.’
Adding for good measure: ‘We have taken very difficult decisions to bring benefit bills down, we have saved £19bn a year from the tax bill, we need to maintain that discipline…’
The Chancellor admitted that the percentage of national debt compared to the GDP is actually rising and will continue to rise.
He said: ‘It rises to 78.3% next year, before peaking at 80% the next year.’
