merelygifted:

Government could seek to reduce welfare benefits spending in wake of recent mini-budget

Poverty campaigners have said it would be “morally indefensible” for ministers to fund tax cuts for the richest on the backs of the poor, amid speculation that ministers may reduce welfare benefits in the wake of last week’s ill-received fiscal statement.

Friday’s mini-budget announced billions of tax cuts benefiting high earners, but the subsequent market fallout plunged the UK’s finances into near crisis. The government is expected to have to make tens of billions of pounds of public spending cuts later this year to try to put the UK’s finances on a sound footing.

With prime minister Liz Truss having made high-profile political commitments to increase defence and NHS spending, welfare is seen as a prime candidate for cuts.

On Thursday the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, refused to confirm that the government would stick to a promise made in May by his predecessor, Rishi Sunak, that benefits would be uprated by the September rate of inflation.  …