Reply #9: Revealed: £3bn mistake in George Osborne's budget plan [View All]

[T_i_B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/09/george-osborne-budget-deficit

George Osborne's reputation as a would-be Tory chancellor was unravelling tonight after his claim that he would save £13bn by raising the state pension age was challenged by the respected thinktank that provided the basis for his figures.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the shadow chancellor's proposed saving, outlined at the Conservative party conference this week, would take five years longer than estimated and fall £3bn short.

NIESR said Osborne's team had made a mistake in their calculations, misreading a paper written by the thinktank earlier this year. Osborne's aides originally based their calculations on a NIESR document in the House of Commons library. After his speech the thinktank sought clarification of his assumptions. It has recalculated the figures and will present them at a conference on Monday.