The UK's Treasury chief, George Osborne, says that Britain will limit welfare payments to jobless families and scrap child support payments for high earners in a sweeping overhaul of the country's benefit system. Osborne, who is seeking to save about 86 billion pounds (US $135 billion) in government spending over the next five years, said Monday that the cost of welfare payments was out of control - and rewarding some people for staying out of work.
At an annual rally of his Conservative Party, Osborne said Britain's coalition government would introduce a new welfare cap to make sure families in which both parents are unemployed do not receive more in benefits than an average family earn in wages. Osborne also announced parents who earn more than 44,000 pounds (US $70,000) per year will lose child benefit payments from 2013.