Iain Duncan Smith. Photograph by Steve Punter
The government’s much discussed benefits cap today rolls out across the UK, where no family will now receive more than £26,000 per years in benefits, with single people limited to £350 per week.
The government has public opinion behind them after their long campaign of dividing the British people between “skivers” and “strivers”, with Prime Minister David Cameron so excited to announce the roll out that he accidentally @mentioned a parody Iain Duncan Smith account in a tweet. The policy, however, may be more symbolic than substantive.
Iain Duncan Smith was criticised back in May by the Office of National Statistic (ONS) for saying
“Already we’ve seen 8,000 people who would have been affected by the cap move into jobs. This clearly demonstrates that the cap is having the desired impact”
In reality, the statistics did not support those conclusions at all, a position which was made specifically clear by the ONS who provided the minister with the statistics he claimed to be reporting. The way in which Duncan Smith cynically misrepresented the figures was so bad that it caused, Andrew Dilnot, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, to write an open letter [PDF] to point this out to the public.
The reprimand does not appear to have had any effect of Duncan Smith’s “belief” that the system is working, or at least claiming that to the British public where research suggests the policy receives 80% support. The policy may or may not result in more people finding employment, but if by “working” Duncan Smith is actually referring to making the Conservative Party being seen as tough on benefits then he is certainly correct there.
