Budget Plans Could Cost 1.3 Million Jobs

Reductions in government spending set out in the new emergency budget could result in 1.3 million job losses by 2015 according to a leading British newspaper. Are you protected for such eventualities?

What’s Reported

The story was printed by The Guardian newspaper and bases its assertions on a leaked Treasury report.

The report predicts that as many as 120,000 public sector and 140,000 private sector jobs could be lost every year over the next 5 years, totalling 1.3 million jobs over the entire five-year period.

The Labour party argue that the true plans of the Conservative party are now clear. Many people assert, including senior Labour figures, that the Conservatives are more concerned with reducing the role of the state rather that the budget deficit itself.

Independent View

Although these figures were produced by HM Treasury they are likely to be estimates taken from scenario analysis rather than their actual predictions for the unemployment road to come. In fact, the government points out that most independent experts expect unemployment to fall and employment to rise over the next five years.

Chancellor’s Presentation

The Guardian claims that the job loss statistics reported come from part of a Treasury presentation on the emergency Budget. In this light the paper states that the Chancellor would have seen the figures before making his Budget announcement and therefore decided now to share these figures with the public.

As yet, the Treasury has failed to confirm or deny whether the figures in the presentation slide uncovered by The Guardian are genuine or accurate.

The Budget

In the Budget announcement the Conservatives committed to cuts across nearly all government departments of 25% over the next 4 years. The only departments to escape large cuts were health and foreign aid.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has continually refused to state how many public sector jobs would be lost as a result of this Budget and the spending cuts contained within.

Instead, the government insists that no new vacancies will be filled to lower head count rather than making mass redundancies.

Despite which view one takes the case for redundancy protection insurance is strong in the current climate.