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Osborne refuses to rule out changes to child benefit

George Osborne insisted £12 billion can be saved from reductions in the welfare budget. Credit: John Stillwell/PA Wire

George Osborne has refused to categorically rule out rolling child benefit into Universal Credit (UC) to help contribute towards Conservative plans to reduce the welfare budget by £12 billion.

At a Westminster briefing, the Chancellor was asked repeatedly to rule it out but refused to do so and instead said that if the Tories had wanted to include child benefit in the new welfare system, they would have done so when it was created.

The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said that replacing child benefit and increasing UC for eligible families could save £4.8 billion a year.

But such a measure would mean that 4.3 million families who receive child benefit at the moment would not be entitled to UC in the future and would lose more than £1,000 a year, the IFS said.

If you judge us on our approach in this parliament and if we wanted to put child benefit into Universal Credit, we would have done it when we set up Universal Credit.

We have got a track record, we have got a plan that's based on clear principles about making work pay and sharpening work incentives.

– George Osborne

Mr Osborne repeated his assertion that the welfare budget savings could be found and that the coalition's reforms had shown the most vulnerable will be protected.