Coalition must spend £25 billion more than planned on benefits, Labour says According to the figures commissioned by Labour from the independent House of Commons library, in 2013/14 prices cumulative benefits expenditure is set to be £25.37 billion higher across the whole of the parliament than was forecast in 2010. The figures include a consistent series of benefits managed by the Department for Work and Pensions, excluding council tax benefit which was transferred to local authorities in 2013. Shadow chancellor Mr Balls and Ms Reeves said: "George Osborne promised to balance the books in this parliament, but it's now clear he will totally fail. As the OBR has said stagnant wages and too many low-paid jobs has led to shortfall in tax receipts and more borrowing. And now figures from the House of Commons Library show the government has also spent £25 billion more than planned on social security. In other words, if we'd had a welfare cap in this parliament the Tories would have breached it. Shadow work and pensions secretary Ms Reeves and Mr Balls said spending had exceeded the forecasts despite the cuts implemented by the Government. They blamed an increase in the number of people reliant on housing benefit for some of the rise, and claimed £8 billion more than they planned had been spent on incapacity benefits due to the "chaotic delivery of reforms and failure to help disabled people into work." Some £1.4 billion of the overspend was on housing benefit for people in work, delays to the delivery of the Personal Independence Payment have cost £1.7 billion more than was planned, and £130 million had been "wasted on failed IT" for the Universal Credit programme. In a joint article for Politics Home the two shadow cabinet ministers said: "This isn't because George Osborne and Iain Duncan-Smith haven't cut vital support for families. They've certainly done that. Over the last few years we've seen the unfair and cruel bedroom tax, cuts to tax credits for working families and even cuts to maternity pay. But savings from those decisions have been outweighed by their total failure to tackle the root causes of rising social security spending. Because the £25 billion of overspending comes despite changes to benefits and taxes that have left families on average £974 a year worse off and despite recent falls in unemployment. A key cause of the Tories' overspending is their failure to make the economy work for working people, leaving thousands more reliant on housing benefit. The Labour pair said they were clear that "we need to control social security spending" and had committed to an overall cap. "But you can't get the social security bill under control unless you're tough on the causes of rising social security spending," they said. But a senior Tory source hit back, saying: "Labour are like the arsonists who are complaining we are not putting out the fire they started fast enough. They have opposed every single measure we've taken to control the housing benefit bill and to ensure the system rewards work, not a life on benefits. Ed Miliband's policies would mean hard-working taxpayers paying for some families to get thousands of pounds a year more in housing benefit to live in areas they cannot afford to live in themselves. He is simply not up to the job.