osborne's successor as chancellor, philip hammond, retained the aim of a balanced budget but abandoned plans to eliminate the deficit by 2020. in hammond's first autumn statement in 2016, there was no mention of austerity, and some commentators concluded that the austerity programme had ended. however, in february 2017, hammond proposed departmental budget reductions of up to 6% for the year 2019–20, and hammond's 2017 budget continued government policies of freezing working-age benefits. following the 2017 snap general election, hammond confirmed in a speech at mansion house that the austerity programme would be continued and michael fallon, the secretary of state for defence, commented: "we all understand that austerity is never over until we've cleared the deficit". government spending reductions planned for the period 2017–2020 are consistent with some departments, such as the department for work and pensions and the ministry of justice, experiencing funding reductions of approximately 40% in real terms over the decade 2010–2020. during 2017 an overall budget surplus on day-to-day spending was achieved for the first time since 2001. this fulfilled one of the fiscal targets set by george osborne in 2010, which he had hoped to achieve in 2015.