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Watch: DWP tries to divert attention from crippling £12bn cuts by releasing pensions rap

Video is re-release of Department for Work and Pensions campaign to promote Government's reforms to the workplace pension

Matt Dathan
Monday 06 July 2015 13:35 BST
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DWP re-release a bizarre rap of their changes to the workplace pension
DWP re-release a bizarre rap of their changes to the workplace pension (DWP)

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In what can only be described as a bizarre attempt to divert people's attention from the £12bn of welfare cuts set to be announced in Wednesday's Budget, the Department for Work and Pensions has released a rap promoting the government's workplace pension reforms.

The short video, posted on social media website Vine, is a re-release of a longer YouTube video launched two years ago that promoted its landmark initiative to automatically place employees into workplace pension schemes two years ago.

It was set up with a target of signing up some 4.3 million more people saving for their retirement.

A YouTube video of DWP workers was released at the time. The rap went like this:

Can I have your attention, about the workplace pension

Did I forget to mention, millions of people are already benefiting

From being involved in the workplace pension

So can I have your attention

The re-released video comes two days before George Osborne will unveil more details of where he will wield the axe as he looks to swipe £12bn from the welfare budget.

Only around £1.5bn of the cuts have so far been announced, with measures including the freezing of working age benefits for two years saving £1bn; reducing the benefit cap to £23,000 and removing housing benefit from young people.

A bulk of the further cuts are expected to fall on tax credits, which could hit more than seven million children according to the government's own child poverty advisers.

A new analysis by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission found that any cut in tax credits would reduce the incomes of 45 per cent of working families.

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