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Commentators discuss the replacement of existing benefits with 'universal credit' which wraps all existing out-of-work benefits together.

The there is an ominous question over how benefit reforms will be paid for:

"Mr Duncan Smith's new system will entail considerable upfront costs. And the bulk of the savings to be reaped from lower levels of welfare dependency are only likely to materialise over a longer period. So this financial circle will need to be squared somehow."

The Iain Duncan Smith's "imaginative" scheme to redress the balance, but is not keen on the end of child benefits providing the savings:

"To pay for the estimated Β£3billion initial cost of this pledge, the Treasury proposes abolishing child benefit for the over-16s and possibly means-testing pensioners' winter fuel allowance - two of the very few financial perks the middle classes receive for paying their taxes and effectively bankrolling the state.
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"Those same hard-working families have already borne the brunt of tax and national insurance rises, seen the value of their savings plummet, and watched their pensions disintegrate. New plans to allow universities to more than treble university tuition fees to a maximum of Β£10,000 a year will also fall disproportionately on their and their children's shoulders"

The chief executive of Barnados that he would welcome an end to universal child benefit:

"This might be surprising, coming from the UK's biggest children's charity, but the case for abolishing child benefit while using the tax credit system to ensure poor families do not lose out is economically and morally overwhelming. And the savings generated should be specifically targeted at the most vulnerable... Even after offering full protection to the poorest families, axing child benefit would save more than Β£5bn. That is Β£5bn which could be used to protect the poorest."

the idea that universal credit is proof of Iain Duncan Smith's victory against George Osborne in an internal battle:

"As Reagan once said, it's amazing what you can achieve in politics when you don't worry about who takes the credit. This was an IDS scheme made workable by Osborne, fuelled by Lib Dem support. Mountaineers do not celebrate when they decide to climb Everest, nor will IDS be celebrating now. This will take years, with many potential pitfalls ahead. But the end result is the single best chance we have to make poverty history."

that getting rid of child benefit would go against what David Cameron vowed before the election:

"There were very clear election promises not to means-test child benefit, so the issue raises again the dilemma of whether and how the Coalition breaks key Cameron pledges. Moving the goalposts on qualifying ages has been mooted - for example by ConservativeΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ - but David Cameron's clear promises to 'keep what we inherited' on key universal benefits, particularly for pensioners, make that very difficult without breaking both the letter and spirit of his public pledges."

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