£10bn welfare cut 'too much, too soon'

The Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) is urging the Government not to go ahead with further welfare cuts.

Plans to cut another £10bn from the welfare budget were outlined by George Osborne and William Hague at the Tory Party conference.

Caritas, the social action arm of the Catholic Church, said the cuts were "far too much, far too soon".

Speaking from the Conservative Party Conference, CSAN chief executive Helen O'Brien said: "The provisions of the Welfare Reform Act have not even been fully implemented, but already the Government is announcing a deeper and more arbitrary set of cuts that will inevitably fall upon the poorest families."

The concerns echo the warning from Archbishop Vincent Nichols last year that cuts were "already being felt disproportionally by the most vulnerable”.