Budget: UK faces worst cuts since World War II
The UK faces the "longest, deepest, sustained period of cuts to public services spending at least since World War II", said an economic think tank.
It is the first time that six years of consecutive spending cuts will have been endured, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said.
Some government departments may see budgets slashed by a third, it added.
The IFS also said government claims that the rich would "feel more pain" than the poor were "debatable".
"The Budget looks less progressive - indeed somewhat regressive - when you take out the effect of measures that were inherited from the previous government and when you look further into the future than 2013," said IFS director Robert Chote.
BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders said the government was likely to be "embarrassed" by another IFS conclusion, that the changes in benefits announced in the budget would significantly raise the number of households and individuals in the UK facing very high marginal tax rates on their earnings.
"That was always inevitable, given that the Treasury was trying to save money by targeting benefits and tax credits more closely on lower income households," she said....
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It is the first time that six years of consecutive spending cuts will have been endured, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said.
Some government departments may see budgets slashed by a third, it added.
The IFS also said government claims that the rich would "feel more pain" than the poor were "debatable".
"The Budget looks less progressive - indeed somewhat regressive - when you take out the effect of measures that were inherited from the previous government and when you look further into the future than 2013," said IFS director Robert Chote.
BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders said the government was likely to be "embarrassed" by another IFS conclusion, that the changes in benefits announced in the budget would significantly raise the number of households and individuals in the UK facing very high marginal tax rates on their earnings.
"That was always inevitable, given that the Treasury was trying to save money by targeting benefits and tax credits more closely on lower income households," she said....