Britons back further welfare cuts, says poll

George Osborne's plan to make further cuts to Britain's welfare bill has the support of 75 per cent of voters, who still think "too much money is being wasted on paying benefits to people who don't need them".

The chancellor's decision to put £12bn of further welfare cuts at the heart of the Conservative election campaign appears to be at least partly vindicated by a survey for the Financial Times by Populus.

Although voters seem to be tiring of austerity and want to see a future government raise spending in most areas, they draw a line when it comes to benefits and foreign aid.

Labour and Conservatives agree on preserving Britain's overseas aid at 0.7 per cent of national output but Ed Miliband has refused to say whether his party would substantially cut welfare. He may be out of step with public opinion. Only 25 per cent of people agreed that talk of waste in the benefits system had "always been overstated and is just being used as an excuse to take money away from people who need it".

The remaining 75 per cent agreed that too much money was being wasted in the benefits system. But roughly half of those who thought money was being wasted believed "the government is targeting the wrong people in trying to reduce the benefit bill".

The Populus survey suggests Britons support the view of Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish National party that austerity should end, with modest increases in spending on public services.

Both Conservatives and Labour have said they will have to cut spending in "unprotected areas" in the next parliament but the poll suggests public appetite for such cuts is limited. Only in the sensitive area of overseas aid do voters support further cuts: 69 per cent said help for developing countries should be cut in the next parliament.

Meanwhile, only 3 per cent favoured cuts to the NHS with 75 per cent wanting higher spending, confirming the health service's status as a holy cow in the 2015 election. In most areas, voters favoured higher spending on public services rather than further cuts, although many thought spending now was set around the right level.

The poll gives an indication of where politicians might make cuts for the least political pain, with the following ratios between those wanting more spending against those wanting further cuts: schools (43:4), defence (32:21), local government (25:14) and government funding towards university tuition fees (27:23).

Of the benefits a future chancellor might cut, there was most support for reducing child benefit, then working-age benefits and finally pensioner benefits such as the winter fuel allowance.

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