The MPs went away from the meeting convinced they had secured an end to the public sector pay cap that would mark a loosening of spending cuts that they could use to show their constituents that the government was listening. The spinning plates most in danger of crashing to the floor include not just public sector pay, but forthcoming welfare cuts, the increasingly controversial rollout of a new benefits system, local government funding and an NHS heading into an early winter crisis. A fifth of recipients on universal credit are not being paid in full within six weeks. It says that, among other things, allowing public sector pay to rise in line with pay in the private sector until 2020 would cost £9.7bn by 2021-22. Unfreezing benefits would cost £3.6bn, while reversing the cuts to work allowances in universal credit would cost about £3.2bn.

Source: The Guardian September 09, 2017 20:26 UTC