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Conservatives Unveil £47bn Savings Plan With Welfare Overhaul, Aid and Civil Service Cuts

The conference pledges seek to rebuild fiscal credibility by funding a £5,000 first‑job NI rebate through cuts that will face legal and political tests.

Overview

  • About £23bn would come from welfare changes, including ending PIP for less severe mental health conditions, requiring formal medical diagnoses for sickness benefits, tightening Universal Credit duties, and shifting some support from cash to in‑kind help.
  • Non‑UK citizens would be barred from most welfare and social housing, with EU settled‑status holders exempt, a move the party says would affect roughly 470,000 current Universal Credit recipients if applied today.
  • The plan targets £8bn by cutting the Civil Service headcount by around a quarter to 2016 levels and £7bn by reducing overseas aid to 0.1% of GDP, alongside £1.6bn from scrapping green subsidies such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
  • A £5,000 'first‑job' National Insurance rebate for young people to use toward a first home would cost about £2.8bn, with the Conservatives claiming up to 600,000 beneficiaries each year.
  • Labour and development groups condemned the proposals, while free‑market analysts warned the figures sidestep long‑term pension pressures; the measures are party commitments announced at conference and not government policy.