Cutting benefits would 'not significantly help deficit' The Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg would like anyone who is worth more than a million pounds not to be able to claim a free bus pass, a free TV licence or winter fuel payments. It might sound like a way to save money but Paul Johnson, the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, thinks it would not have much impact. Nick Clegg was talking about hitting pensioenrs worth more than a million pounds. I don't know exactly how much that would raise but somewhere between very little and not very much is probably the correct answer. That would not hit very many people. It's not going to be a significant part of any way that we're going to help with the deficit.