<p><br /> George Osborne has delivered his Comprehensive Spending Review with a £7bn hit on the welfare budget.<br /> </p><p><br /> The cuts include the axing of child benefit for higher rate taxpayers.<br /> </p><p><br /> Mr Osborne also confirmed there would be an estimated 490,000 job losses in the public sector over the next four years.<br /> </p><p><br /> He sought to resassure the public, saying: "Much of it will be achieved through natural turnover, by leaving posts unfilled as they become vacant. Estimates suggest a turnover rate of over 8 per cent in the public sector.<br /> </p><p><br /> "But yes, there will be some redundancies ... that is unavoidable when the country has run out of money."<br /> </p><p><br /> The Chancellor said that departments across Whitehall face cuts.<br /> </p><p><br /> Many Government departments face cuts. Among the biggest losers are the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice, which face annual budget cuts of 6 per cent - with policing down 4 per cent - while the Foreign Office will lose 24 per cent over the next four years.<br /> </p><p><br /> Overall, the Department for Education will be required to find resource savings of only 1 per cent a year and the schools budget will rise to £39bn.<br /> </p><p><br /> Mr Osborne pledged to maintain universal benefits for pensioners including free eye tests, prescription charges, bus passes, TV licences for the over 75s and winter fuel payments.<br /> </p><p><br /> The state pension age to 66 would be brought forward to 2020.<br /> </p><p><br /> Shadow chancellor Alan Johnson accused the Government of taking a "reckless gamble with people's livelihoods" which could wreck the economic recovery.<br /> </p><p><br /> Amid noisy scenes in the Commons he declared: "We've seen people cheering the deepest cuts to public spending in living memory.<br /> </p><p><br /> "For some members opposite this is their ideological objective ... this is what they came into politics for."<br /> </p>
