The Tories could cut child benefit or stop millions of families receiving it , Government chief whip Michael Gove admitted last night . Mr Gove , the former education secretary , said he could not rule out further cuts to child benefit to reduce the deficit . Asked on the BBC 's Newsnight if he could confirm that there would be 'no more changes to child benefit ' , Mr Gove said : 'No I ca n't say that . ' Conservative chief whip Michael Gove admitted the Tories could cut child benefit or stop millions of families receiving it . Mr Gove said the Tories would not cut benefits for the disabled or pensioners – but refused to rule out cuts to child benefit . He said : 'There is a huge amount of welfare spending that can be reduced without having any impact on people who have disabilities . 'We 're not going to hit , or take money away from , the disabled . We 're going to protect people who are pensioners . What we are going to do . ' Mr Gove was asked specifically : 'There will be no more changes to child benefit . Can you say that to us ? ' He said : 'It 's not our policy at the moment . But the thing I would say is that we 've succeeded over the course of the last five years , not just in making departmental cuts which I 've alluded to , but in making £21billion worth of welfare cuts . All we 're asking to do is to do half of that again . ' Rachel Reeves , Labour 's shadow work and pensions secretary , said : 'Michael Gove 's repeated refusal to rule out child benefit cuts will only add to fears that the Tories have a secret plan to cut support to children . 'The Tories have a £12 billion black hole in their welfare plans it 's clear they ca n't fill without hitting families with children . It 's time for the Tories to come clean with the public about their plans to cut child benefit . ' The revelation comes after George Osborne last month refused to rule out further cuts to child benefit if the Conservatives win a second term . Asked on the BBC 's Newsnight if he could confirm there will be 'no more changes to child benefit ' , Mr Gove said : 'No I ca n't say that ' Mr Gove 's remarks came after George Osborne last month refused to rule out further cuts to child benefit if the Conservatives win a second term . More than a million households lost out when the Coalition announced that families with one parent earning £50,000 would pay tax on child benefit . Earners over £60,000 lost out altogether . The controversial measure , brought in two and a half years ago as part of the Government 's austerity programme , was criticised for penalising single-earner families and stay-at-home mothers . It meant anyone earning less than £50,000 – even a couple on £49,000 each - still received the full entitlement of £20.70 a week for the first child , and £13.70 for every subsequent child . Mr Osborne was asked at a briefing in central London on the economy this morning whether he could 'rule out depriving more people of child benefit , like you 've already done in this Parliament ? ' But the Chancellor appeared to leave the door open to further cuts when asked if he would be 'depriving more families ' of the payments which are worth more than £1,000 per year . Mr Osborne did not directly answer about reducing the threshold , only saying that child benefit would not be replaced by the new benefits system Universal Credit , which is being rolled out nationally . The respected think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies have suggested that increasing Universal Credit for some families and using it instead of child benefit could save £4.8billion a year . The Chancellor said : 'You can judge us on our record in this Parliament . If we wanted to put child benefit into Universal Credit we would have done it when we set up Universal Credit . 'We 've got a track record , we 've got a plan based on clear principles of making work pay , sharpening work incentives . ' Asked again why he did not rule out any type of child benefit cuts , he said : ' I 've given you a very clear answer . We 've created a welfare system where child poverty is down , inequality is down , we have a record low number of workless households and what we are doing is creating welfare system where it pays to work and we protect the most vulnerable . 'We are going to carry on doing that in the next Parliament . But we ca n't do any of these things without economic security and a growing economy . ' The Conservatives say they would cut £30billion of spending if they win a second term . Of this £12billion would be slashed from the welfare bill , with the rest from government departments and further cracking down on tax avoidance . While the Prime Minister has given a commitment to protect the state pension , few other savings have been set out apart from reducing the cap on a family 's annual benefits from £26,000 to £23,000 . It is widely speculated that the Conservatives could restrict child benefit to just two children , to save around £2billion a year .
asked if he could rule out disability benefit cuts Mr Gove said : ' I ' n't say that ' The chief whip ruled out any cuts to pensioner and disability benefits . Comes after George Osborne paved the way for further cuts to benefits . He refused to rule out cutting back cuts into the Credit system .