Keir Starmer criticises budget watchdog over welfare assessment

Keir Starmer has criticised the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for failing to assess the potential economic impact of the government’s welfare reforms.

The prime minister said the watchdog’s economic forecast had not “priced in” the measures set out in the government’s Pathways to Work Green Paper, which was published alongside the Spring Statement.

He told the liaison committee on Tuesday afternoon: “On the impact assessments, it is significant to my mind that the ability of any policy or legislation to change any behaviour at all is not priced in, in other words the OBR has scored nothing against any change here.

“The assumption is not a single person changes their behaviour.

“I personally struggle with that way of looking at it because I do think that these measures will make a material difference and they need to make a material difference.”

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