IDS under fire for twisting stats to back Tory benefit reforms

WORK and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, pictured below, was yesterday accused of misrepresenting Government statistics in order to claim that his cap on benefits was driving people to find work.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) released figures on Friday showing the number of people expected to be hit by the cap had fallen from 56,000 to 40,000, with 8000 claimants finding work through JobCentre

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Duncan Smith claimed the cap had provided a “strong incentive” for people to look for jobs, even before it had started to affect their incomes.

But Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and a former chief economist at the DWP, said there was “no evidence at all” that the cap had affected people’s behaviour.

He said the analysis published by the DWP “makes it quite clear … that there is as yet no evidence one way or the other that there is behavioural change”.

The DWP said that it had followed the correct procedures in publishing the data.

Meanwhile, disabled activists yesterday held a demonstration outside Duncan Smith’s country mansion in Buckinghamshire as part of a series of protests against the Government’s welfare reforms organised by pressure group UK Uncut.