No doubt there is much relief in No 10, in the Treasury, at the Department for Work and Pensions and in the whips’ office, that the welfare reforms crisis is over.
That, however, is as nothing to the emotions being felt by the estimated 800,000 people who had been traumatised by the thought of losing around £3,850 in their annual income. The government’s own assessment was that some 250,000 of them would thereby be pushed into relative poverty. Many were in despair.
