You must be having a laugh. Social welfare exists to:
1. Keep section bertie/
ff voters dependent on and grateful to the state.
2. Employ over 2000 public servants.
3. Pay the mortgages of landlords through rent allowance.
4. Funnel money to builders through social housing.
5. Discourage the poor away from criminal acts in middle class areas.
6. Support the poverty industry.
7.silly voodoo economics which you rightly complain about.
8. Support the middle class through universal child benefit and affordable housing.
The poor and vulnerable are a means to an end. There is plenty of scope for cuts but a 3% one is so blunt and so little to be useless. The 600m savings would be soon eaten up in greater demand for the programmes.