Turnbull's proposed welfare cuts explained

The Turnbull government has put a raft of proposed welfare savings measures on the backburner as it seeks to secure the package of childcare reforms.

Its revised social services bill includes four key savings measures:

* Freezing family tax benefit rates for two years: $1.377 billion (saving about $1.95 billion over the four years to 2021);

* Extending and simplifying waiting periods for parental payments and youth allowance for those not full-time students or apprentices: $189.4 million;

* Three-year freeze on "income-free areas" and "means-test thresholds" for certain payments and allowances: $69 million;

* Automating income stream review processes: $30.2 million.

The government has also backflipped on a proposed spending measure, which it is now touting as a saving:

* Abandoning plans to boost fortnightly family tax payments: $2.3 billion.

There is a raft of welfare cuts not included in the smaller package of cuts, whose fate remains unknown:

* Phasing out annual family tax benefit end-of-year supplements;

* Ending carbon tax compensation for new welfare recipients;

* Making young people wait four weeks before receiving income support;

* Shifting unemployed people aged between 22 and 24 to youth allowance instead of the dole;

* Stopping pension payments for people (who've spent less than 35 years of their working life in Australia) after six weeks overseas;

* Scrapping the pensioner education supplement.