The United Kingdom's Government Austerity Program is a series of sustained reductions in public spending, intended to reduce the deficit. This economic program was initiated in 2010 by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition. Its original goal was to, "achieve cyclically-adjusted current balance by the end of the rolling, five-year forecast period." At Budget 2010, the end of the forecast period was 2015-16. However, in 2014 the Treasury extended the proposed austerity period until at least 2018. Some commentators argue that Austerity has been a painful but correct decision. For example, we are now out of the recession, unemployment rate is going down, economy is growing and Inflation is at its lowest for 5 years. In other words, they argue that austerity has been a painful but correct decision. In government cuts were also supported by the Labour party and Lib dem In particular. This shows that there is actually a consensus on Austerity. However, Ed Miliband has said that he will not cut the spendings in such a radical way. Additionally Government cuts have also been criticized a lot by the Labour party. In addition, some economists have also criticized George Osborne cuts. They argue that these cuts are putting working class families at disadvantage and are affecting poor people.
Some commentators argue that Austerity has been a painful, but correct decision. For example, they argue that many people lost their jobs in 2010/2011, which was very painful for the families. Unemployment peaked at almost 2.7 million at the end of 2011, its highest level for 17 years. However, it has been a correct decision because since 2012 Unemployment rate is going down. For instance, number of people out of work fell by 161,000 to 2.16 million over the period which suggest the UK economy is recovering. In addition, the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in August fell by 37,200 to below one million, at 966,500, the ONS said.
