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date: 17 August 2010

embargo: 00.01hrs Wednesday 18 August 2010

100 days - 100 cuts that hit the vulnerable

Some of the UK's poorest families have been hit by more than 100 unfair spending cuts during the first 100 days of the new Government, a TUC analysis of departmental spending reveals today (Wednesday).

The TUC research, published in advance of the 100 day anniversary of the coalition Government tomorrow (Thursday), shows that cuts which impact more on the poorest families in the UK have been made across the board in services including education, health, housing, welfare and social care.

Examples of cuts the TUC believes are unfair include:

• Free school meals - The cancelled measure would have extended entitlement to free school meals to about 500,000 families in work on low pay from September this year. Cost £125m.
• Every child a reader - This programme to provide early support to children with literacy difficulties (focussed on inner-city schools) will be cut by at least £5m and its future is not guaranteed.
• City Challenge Fund - This programme aimed to provide extra support to under-performing children in the most deprived areas, but has been cut by £8m this year.
• Building Schools for the Future - This scrapped programme was the biggest-ever school buildings investment plan. The aim was to rebuild or renew nearly every secondary school in England. Cost £7.5bn.
• Housing benefit - Nearly a million (936,960) households will lose around £624 a year as a result of changes to housing benefit. Londoners will be worst hit.
• Homes and Communities Agency - Cuts to programmes including Kickstart (for restarting stalled house building programmes), affordable housing, gypsy and traveller support and Housing Market Renewal (improvements to housing in deprived areas). Cost £450m.
• Young Person's Guarantee - £450m has been cut from the Guarantee, which will be abolished in April 2011. This Guarantee promised unemployed young people access to a job, training or work after six months of unemployment.
• Working Neighbourhood Fund - This fund, which aimed to help unemployed people in deprived areas to move into work, has been cut by £49.9m.
• Domestic Violence Protection Orders - Scheme to create two-week banning orders so that victims of domestic abuse can look for protection in the safety of their own house.

The TUC is calling on the Government to reconsider its plan of swingeing spending cuts to public services, and focus instead on other ways to reduce the deficit, such as a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions that could raise up to £20bn a year.

The TUC is also a member of a coalition, which includes Barnardo's, Oxfam and Save the Children, who want the Government to guarantee that any future budget cuts will be put through rigorous fairness testing - or a Fairness Test - by the Treasury, to ensure that vulnerable people, low-paid workers, women and children are not left to bear the brunt of spending cuts.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Before the election we were told that cuts could be achieved through efficiency savings, that the most vulnerable would be protected and front-line services preserved. These pledges have not lasted 100 days.

'What makes this worse is that these cuts are doing the opposite of what the Government intends. Far from securing the economic recovery, they are slamming on the economic brakes. Growth will be well below potential and there is growing risk of a double-dip recession.

'We can only conclude that at least parts of the coalition are using the deficit as an excuse to secure the cuts in public services that they know that voters would have overwhelmingly rejected if faced with a manifesto that promised slash and burn.

'There is an alternative with policies designed to promote growth and to close the deficit with taxes that target those who did so well out of the boom years and have have already escaped the recession.

'The TUC wants a Fairness Test to be introduced by the Treasury to ensure that cuts do not unfairly impact on the poorest in society - which would increase inequality in a Britain which is already at its most divided in income levels for half a century.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- For a full list of cuts identified by the TUC please go to http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/100_cuts_table_FINAL.xls

- For a list of cuts that will specifically affect children and families please go to here: http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/2010/08/children-and-families-face-around-13-billion-of-spending-cuts/,

- The Fairness Test is supported by: Barnardo's, Child Poverty Action Group, Church Action on Poverty, Community Links, Disability Alliance, End Child Poverty campaign, Equality Trust, Family Action, Gingerbread, London Play, One Society Campaign, Oxfam, RADAR, Ruth Lister, Save the Children, TUC and UK Women's Budget Group. For more information please visit http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/fairnesstest

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

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13 September to Thursday 16 September. Free media passes can be obtained by visiting www.tuc.org.uk/congress/tuc-18063-f0.cfm and returning a form. Applications must be in by noon on Monday 6 September. Any received later than that will be processed in Manchester and will cost £50.

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Elly Gibson T: 020 7467 1337 M: 07900 910624 E: egibson@tuc.org.uk

Press release (900 words) issued 18 Aug 2010