George Osborne will set out more details on his planned cap on welfare spending in the Autumn Statement on Thursday

The welfare state is unaffordable, George Osborne will tell MPs this week, and permanent cuts will be required to make the public finances “sustainable”. The Chancellor will use his Autumn Statement on Thursday to set out more details of a new cap on welfare spending after the next general election. It is an attempt to put permanent limits on around £100 billion a year of spending on items such as Housing Benefit and some unemployment payments. Mr Osborne yesterday hinted that, even after the current austerity programme, more fundamental changes will be needed to give Britain an “affordable state”. The Chancellor will also use his set-piece economic statement to Parliament on Thursday to update MPs on the state of the public finances. The economy is recovering and currently growing more quickly than any other developed economy. That will allow Mr Osborne to borrow up to £20 billion less this year than he had expected and some economists have suggested that borrowing over the next five years could be up to £70 billion lower than expected......Read more here