Osborne announces cut in benefits cap to £20,000 a year outside London

By The Guardian

Benefit payments to families living outside Greater London are to be capped at £20,000 a year.

In the first Conservative budget for 19 years, George Osborne will say that the previously announced figure of £23,000 will only apply to families living in the capital in a further cut to the welfare budget.

Tory welfare cuts would hit poorest third of UK families, research shows

By The Guardian

The government’s reported package of welfare cuts in next month’s budget, including a £5bn cut to child tax credit, would overwhelmingly hit the poorest third of families in the UK, new research shows.

Conservative party pledges extra £8bn a year for NHS

By The Guardian

George Osborne has moved to address concerns that the Tories have abandoned compassionate Conservatism by pledging to protect the “precious” NHS with a guarantee of an £8bn increase in spending per year above inflation by 2020.

In a week that has seen signs of a slip in Tory poll ratings and claims that the Conservative party is running a highly personalised campaign against Labour leader Ed Miliband, the chancellor has moved to issue an “absolute commitment” to deliver the resources required by the NHS.

Writing in the Guardian, the chancellor claims the Conservatives will pledge in their general election manifesto, to be launched next week, to meet a £30bn per year funding gap by the end of the decade identified by Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England.