I told you his maths and morals were bad…

So, the respected and independent economics think-tank NIESR takes apart Mr Osborne’s maths today. Mr Osborne said a one year increase in the pension age to 66 would save £13 billion. Not so say NIESR. Here’s the key quote from their press release;

‘The National Institute estimated that an increase of 1 year in the effective retirement age would save the government £13bn per year. However, since the participation rate of old workers is well below 100%, this requires an increase in the effective working age of 1 ½ years. This can only be achieved if people choose to work longer, and would require changes in benefits, state retirement ages and a campaign to persuade people that they need to work longer to restore their savings’.

The Guardian reports NIESR as arguing Mr Osborne’s plan would take 5 years longer than predicted and falls £3 billion short. But that’s only the start of it. For those who take an interest in these things, here’s the top 5 ways Mr Osborne would hit us…

1. Removing tax credits from those over £50,000 would hit 130,000 families and only raise £40 million . Yet, the Tories promise to save £400 million. This could only be achieved by hitting families on much lower incomes than £50,000.

2. The Conservative Party claims that their incapacity benefit savings would save £1 billion across a Parliament. But they would require £600 million in upfront costs so in the first year the Tories would have to increase borrowing to fund their policy.

3. The Conservative Party claims that their pay freeze will save £3.2bn per year. This is the same cost as the marriage tax break confirmed by George Osborne – costed by the Tory Social Justice Commission, so no net saving to reduce the deficit.

4. The Tories are committed to taking away £1000 from a family on modest incomes with children –  their cuts to the Child Trust Fund would mean that a family earning over £16,040 with two children will lose £1,000 in direct payments for their children by the time the children had reached seven years of age…

5. Mr Osborne’s nebulous promise to cut Whitehall waste by £3bn ignores the fact that the Government has already set out in detail how it would deliver £35bn of efficiency savings by next year.

Despite this, Osborne says we’re all in it together. Yet while he persists with his cut for the richest estates, he’s willing to cut the pay the average teacher by £330 a year and the average nurse by £300.

I told you this guy had bad maths and worse morals.