Cuts Index Poll for ITV News

A ComRes poll for ITV News shows that the public isn’t more worried about public disorder despite last week’s student unrest

The third instalment of the Cuts Index, conducted by ComRes and to be broadcast on ITV News at Ten, will show that the public agree that tuition fee rises will impact poorer families but believe that everyone must share the cost of the cuts.

70% of the public agree that higher tuitions fees would deter students from poorer backgrounds from going to university, and only 17% believe they won’t. However, when asked if everyone has to share the costs of the spending cuts including students, 64% agreed compared to 22% who disagreed.

Interestingly, the number of people concerned about the threat of social disorder in some communities hasn’t changed despite the student riots last week, with 41% of respondents saying that they are more worried about social disorder than they were three months ago and 4% saying they are less worried – figures that are almost unchanged from the previous Cuts Index poll conducted before the student unrest.

When questioned about the state of the economy, 53% said they were more worried about the economy than they were three months ago, compared to only 9% who are less worried.   This has increased from 42% who said they were more worried about the state of the economy before the Spending Review. 

The Cuts Index panel was asked if they agreed with the statement ‘the benefit cuts are unfair and they'll hit the poor and vulnerable disproportionately hard’. 48% agreed with the statement and 35% disagreed. When asked whether too many people claim benefits that they are not entitled to, 81% agreed and 7% disagreed.

The findings of this third instalment of the Cuts Index will be broadcast on ITV News at Ten on 18^th October.

Continuous polling by ComRes will take place over the next 12 months to chart the public’s views on these topics of the coalition, financial wellbeing, public services and personal happiness as austerity measures start to bite.