London, March 28 (IANS) The Conservative Party of Prime Minister David Cameron is facing the wrath of vulnerable sections of British society after the BBC exposed documents revealing suggestions for scrapping several benefits affecting them.
The leaked files belong to the department for work and pensions under Iain Duncan Smith. Commissioned by Tory officials, they also suggest a regional benefits cap and taxing disability benefits as ways to help cut 12 billion pounds from the welfare budget by 2017-18, BBC reported.
The BBC News investigation uncovered several benefits under consideration for change, including carer’s allowance, employment and support allowance, job seekers allowance, disability benefits and Industrial Injuries Compensation Scheme. Over 10 million people are receiving benefits from the government depending on their condition.
The Conservative Party said the proposals were not party policy.
The leaked documents were prepared by civil servants at the request of Conservative Party officials.
A spokeswoman for Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: “This is ill-informed and inaccurate speculation. Officials spend a lot of time generating proposals — many not commissioned by politicians. It’s wrong and misleading to suggest that any of this is part of our plan.”
But the opposition Labour Party said the public had a “right to know” what welfare cuts would be made if his party was in government after May’s election.
“With less than six weeks to go to the election, the electorate have a right to know what those 12 billion-pound cuts are going to look like and who are going to be the people who pay the price.”
Liberal Democrat general election campaign spokesperson Lord Scriven said: “Conservative plans for 12 billion pounds worth of welfare cuts means 1,500-pound cut for eight million households. To build a stronger economy and a fairer society, the welfare system should be designed to help people get on in life. But, surprise, surprise the Tories are hell-bent on punishing disabled people and working families with crippling welfare cuts.”
In another development, the Conservative Party has accused the BBC of “clear editorial bias” for declaring that there was no clear winner in Thursday night’s televised election interviews of Ed Miliband and David Cameron.
Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps complained that the BBC was being unfairly kind to Miliband in its post-debate coverage.
“When Obama beat McCain 54-46 in a head-to-head it was called a landslide. But for the BBC that’s called ‘no clear winner’. Odd!” he tweeted.
The BBC has rejected the accusation and said it would report the general election campaign “without fear or favour”.
Downing Street has clashed with the BBC on many occasions over the last five years. In December, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborn accused BBC of “hyperbolic coverage” of its spending cuts.
The chancellor refused to give details of how the Conservatives planned to save the 12 billion pounds when questioned last week following the Budget.
He has previously said the Tories would freeze the rate at which benefits are paid to people of working age, while PM David Cameron has discussed lowering the benefits cap — the maximum amount in benefits a household can receive — from the current 26,000 pounds to 23,000 pounds.
The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests those measures would save no more than about two billion pounds a year by 2017-18. The government has cut around 20 billion pounds from projected welfare spending over the course of the past five years, through a range of measures from freezing payments rates to cutting housing benefit.
(Anasudhin Azeez can be contacted at md@asianlite.com)