Key issues: welfare

However whether and how much to cut the benefit bill further is hotly contested.

The coalition government has already undertaken radical cuts, saving £10bn but arguably helping drive the steady growth of foodbanks, as claimants face cuts and sanctions.

Some high-profile initiatives have actually had a negligible impact - the contentious benefit cap has saved just one two thousandth (0.0005%) of the welfare budget.

The new benefit, Universal Credit which will combine job seeker's allowance, housing benefit and a number of other benefits into one payment has been criticised on practical grounds.

But its introduction has also been horribly botched, with repeated delays and technical problems. Only 55,000 people of a potential 7 million eligible are currently receiving it, two years after it was meant to launch.

Further welfare cuts are planned if the Conservatives are re-elected but all the parties are balancing fact that benefit cuts are popular with some voters against the rising concern in other parts of the electorate that austerity polices have gone too far and that the poor and vulnerable are paying the highest price.

Conservatives

* £12bn in further welfare cuts. Confirmed policies will only save £2bn of that and ministers refuse to say where the remaining £10bn will be found and have insist leaked documents which talked of taxing disability benefits and a regional benefits cap are not policy. Critics say all the most obvious cuts have already been made and finding the required savings can only be done by causing serious social pain.

* maintain a freeze on working age benefits for two years

* existing cap on the benefits claimed by a single household will be cut from £26,000 to £23,000 pa

* Cut job seekers allowance for 18-21 year old and remove automatic housing bennefit from this group - replace with a 6-month 'youth allowance'.

Liberal Democrat

* Pledge smaller savings of £3.5bn, to be achieved by measures including capping rises in most benefits to 1% p.a. for two years. and removing winter fuel payments and free TV licences from pensioners who pay the highest rate of income tax

* Would scrap the bedroom tax, except for those who are offered a smaller property and turn it down.

* Introduce a 'carer's bonus', a £250 annual payment for people with informal caring responsibilities, by the end of the next parliament in 2020.

* 'Yellow Card' warnings for people at risk of having benefits cut.

Labour

* Like the liberal democrats would maintain the £26,000 cap on household benefits and look at lowering it.

* Has offered a jobs guarantee for any under-25s unemployed for over a year, and for adults out of work for more than two years. This would be funded by a tax on bankers' bonuses.

* Scrap the bedroom tax

* Tax credits will rise in line with inflation

* Three month pause while introduction of Universal Credit is reassessed.

* Target culture for job centre staff to sanction claimants to be ended - the DWP currently denies such a policy exists.

SNP

* Scrap the disability benefit Personal Independence Payments and stop the roll-out of Universal Credit

* Abolish the bedroom tax

* Resist any further cuts to benefits and instead argue for modest increases in benefits such as child benefit, disability benefit and tax credits - argues these should rise by at least the cost of living

* Press for Scotland to have more powers than currently promised by Smith Commission, such as employment policy, including the minimum wage, wider powes over welfare, business taxes, national insurance and equality policy

Green

* The party supports a citizen's income, a fixed basic sum paid to all individuals, but is only committed to consulting on its introduction.

* Would stop 'Workfare' policies which result in unemployed people being forced to work in return for benefits.

* Separate support for people with disabilities and an end to work capability assessments.

* Abolish the bedroom tax.

UKIP

* Migrants to the UK will not be able to claim benefits for five years, in a bid to end what the party calls 'welfare tourism'.

* Child benefit limited to two children and will not be paid for children who do not live in Britain.

* Would seek to further lower the household benefit cap

* Axe bedroom tax and end disability benefit assessments

DUP

* Bedroom tax to be abolished

* Continue to make the case at Westminster for a fairer earnings-linked state pension

* More affordable childcare for hours that suit working families

* Support and implement 'logical' welfare reforms that simplify the social security system and assist people to move from welfare to work

* Universal Credit must be allowed to bed down to enable a proper evaluation of its impact.