George Osborne 'finds' £12bn of welfare cuts

Chancellor George Osborne has given a sneak preview of the cuts that can be expected in his upcoming budget after hinting that a tougher limit on benefits could be introduced.

ITV News' Political Correspondent Lewis Vaughn Jones looks ahead to what can be expected from Wednesday's budget:

George Osborne is set to cut £650 million from the BBC's budget - the amount the Government currently spends on providing free television licences for the over-75s.

The corporation will have to take on the cost of providing the 4.5 million licences - worth £145.50 per person - the Chancellor suggested on BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show.

"The BBC is also a publicly funded institution and so it does need to make savings and contribute to what we need to do as a country to get our house in order. So we are in discussion with the BBC," he said.

Reports suggested that the BBC would be able to recoup up to £150 million of lost revenue through charging for the use of its iPlayer and other online catch-up services.

He also hinted that the website could be scaled back, saying: "You wouldn't want the BBC to completely crowd out national newspapers. If you look at the BBC website it is a good product but it is becoming a bit more imperial in its ambitions."

George Osborne has announced the benefit cap outside the capital will be lower than £23,000.

In an interview with BBC's Andrew Marr, he said: "It's not fair that people outside of work can earn more than those in work."

The Tories announced they would be capping London benefits at £23,000 during their election campaign.

Asked how much lower it would be for the rest of the country, the Chancellor said it would be revealed in the budget on Wednesday.

The extra cash raised from cuts to subsidies for high earners living in social housing will go straight to people living in council properties.

As much as £250 million a year by 2018-19 could be raised towards reducing the country's debt burden.

Expectations are that Chancellor George Osborne will argue that 9% of all social tenants in England are now on higher incomes while enjoying the benefit of an average £3,500-a-year per household in reduced rent.

They include over 40,000 with annual household incomes in excess of £50,000 and a further 300,000 with incomes over £30,000.

The move builds on measures introduced under the coalition that enabled housing associations and local authorities to charge market rents to those on incomes of more than £60,000.

Chancellor George Osborne looks set to cut the amount of social housing cash available to council and housing association tenants, according to reports.

Osborne is expected to use his summer Budget to clampdown on taxpayer-funded subsidies for social housing tenants who earn more than £30,000 per household, or £40,000 in London, meaning they will have to pay a market or near market rent in future.

Currently the earnings cap at which housing associations and local authorities are able to charge tenants market rents is £60,000.

The housing subsidy cut is expected to affect 9 % of people in England who currently rent at lower than market rents and is hoped to help the government raise an extra £50 million a year by 2018-19.