Tories call benefit rise 'pre-election con'

Friday 11th December 2009

The Conservatives have branded Alistair Darling's plan to increase benefits a 'pre-election con.'

They say the increased benefits will rise before a vote next year only to fall afterwards.

The chancellor defended his pre-Budget report saying that the benefits will in fact rise again the following year.

Critics say the 1.5 per cent increase in some benefits including child support, incapacity benefit and disability allowance which will come into effect in April 2010, potentially weeks before a general election, are only a temporary measure and will be reversed the following year.

It is just one of many aspects of yesterday's pre-Budget report which the Conservatives say make it more political than economic.

Alistair Darling defended the increase and denied it was politically motivated.

He told the BBC: "I wanted to increase them [the benefits in question] by 1.5 per cent otherwise they would have been frozen. They'll go up again next year."

Another area of Wednesday's report which came under fire from shadow chancellor George Osborne was the one per cent rise in national insurance.

The hike announced for 2011 will affect anyone earning over £20,000. The government predicts it will raise £2.9 billion in 2011-12.

Mr Osborne though called the rise "nonsense" on GMTV this morning and claimed it would "impose a £446 million bill on the NHS, eating into the very resources which the chancellor claimed to be protecting".

Mr Darling claimed the money generated would in fact protect key public services. He said: "It's a difficult decision but I think it was right both in terms of what I want to do to cut my borrowing but also, in terms of something like the NHS or schools, it is important we preserve those frontline services."

The Conservatives have branded Alistair Darling’s plan to increase benefits a 'pre-election con.'

They say the increased benefits will rise before a vote next year only to fall afterwards.

The chancellor defended his pre-Budget report saying that the benefits will in fact rise again the following year.

Critics say the 1.5 per cent increase in some benefits including child support, incapacity benefit and disability allowance which will come into effect in April 2010, potentially weeks before a general election, are only a temporary measure and will be reversed the following year.

It is just one of many aspects of yesterday's pre-Budget report which the Conservatives say make it more political than economic.

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