Iain Duncan Smith MP blamed Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps, right-wing
newspapers, and even the Labour Party for causing "fear and anxiety" about
welfare reforms - the only person he hasn’t blamed is himself.
Iain Duncan Smith has blamed Tory party headquarters, party chairman Grant Shapps, journalists from right-wing papers and Labour "moaning" for causing "fear and alarm" about his welfare reforms.
In a tense grilling before the Work and Pensions committee, Duncan Smith rejected accusations that the coalition's abuse of statistics to misrepresent the welfare system caused "fear and alarm"
Committee chair Dame Anne Begg seized on "completely false" claims made byShapps in a Sunday Telegraph article in March in which he suggested nearly a million people stopped claiming incapacity benefit to avoid going through a "tough medical test".
Duncan Smith said that Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) had "conflated" figures to get such a figure, insisting that the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) did not know they were coming out.
The Work and Pensions secretary dismissed "out of context" reports that in April he said claimants were getting in early to claim disability living allowance to avoid new medical tests as part of the personal independent payment system, which were reported by papers like the Telegraph and the Sun.
Duncan Smith's ill-tempered appearance before MPs came as he disclosed last week that his 2017 target for the full introduction of the coalition's flagship Universal Credit welfare scheme is set to be missed - with around 700,000 claimants facing a longer wait.
He went on to accuse Labour committee member Debbie Abrahams of "moaning", after she asked him: "Do you feel you're in control of your department?"
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Duncan Smith blames Conservative HQ for statistics abuse
Work and Pensions Secretary says incapacity
benefit story was "nothing to do with the department" and adds: "I've tried to
get my colleagues at Central Office to check first".
After months of trying, MPs on the work and pensions select committee finally
had a chance to question Iain Duncan Smith on the DWP's abuse of statistics and
the chaos surrounding Universal Credit today. On the former, Duncan Smith
bullishly pointed out that the department had published "over 500" statistical
releases and had received just two critical letters from the UK Statistics
Authority. He again declared that he "believed"
thousands of people had moved into work as a result of the introduction of the
benefit cap, despite the UKSA warning that this was "unsupported by the official
statistics".
But when he was questioned on the false statement by Conservative chairman Grant Shapps that "nearly a million people" (878,300) on incapacity benefit dropped their claims, rather than face a new medical assessment for the employment and support allowance (which resulted in another reprimand from the Statistics Authority to Duncan Smith and Shapps), he took a strikingly different line. Rather than defending the claim, he replied that it was "nothing to do with the department" and blamed CCHQ for the inaccurate "conflation of data". Speaking from what appeared to most to be a glass house, he added: "I've tried to get my colleagues at Central Office to check first before they put anything out about the areas that the DWP covers because it's complex". One was left with the image of Duncan Smith pleading with Shapps and other Tory apparatchiks not to twist statistics for the purposes of political propaganda but his own record meant he received little sympathy from the committee.
After being challenged on the DWP's demonisation of benefit claimants through its references to "a something for nothing culture", Duncan Smith similarly sought to shift the blame, noting that it was "a minister" from the last government (Liam Byrne) who first referred to "shirkers" and "workers", to which the only appropriate reply is 'two wrongs don't make a right".
On Universal Credit, which was being claimed by just 2,150 people at the end of September, 997,850 short of the original April 2014 target of one million, he defiantly declared "there is no debacle" and denounced the "bogus nonsense" that had been spoken about the scale of IT writedowns. We learned that a mere £40.1m of IT assets had been written off (lower than £140m figure cited by the public accounts committee) but what Duncan Smith didn't mention is that officials expect a further £91m to be "rapidly amortised" (written off) over the next five years.
Challenged on whether he expected his target of moving all claimants onto Universal Credit (with the exception of 700,000 claiming employment and support allowance) by 2017, he could only again reply that he "believed" it would be. But after so many delays, few MPs are now willing to accept his assurances. For now, Duncan Smith can only claim 'success' by permanently shifting the goalposts. As one of his officials put it today, "it works for a limited population at this time."
But when he was questioned on the false statement by Conservative chairman Grant Shapps that "nearly a million people" (878,300) on incapacity benefit dropped their claims, rather than face a new medical assessment for the employment and support allowance (which resulted in another reprimand from the Statistics Authority to Duncan Smith and Shapps), he took a strikingly different line. Rather than defending the claim, he replied that it was "nothing to do with the department" and blamed CCHQ for the inaccurate "conflation of data". Speaking from what appeared to most to be a glass house, he added: "I've tried to get my colleagues at Central Office to check first before they put anything out about the areas that the DWP covers because it's complex". One was left with the image of Duncan Smith pleading with Shapps and other Tory apparatchiks not to twist statistics for the purposes of political propaganda but his own record meant he received little sympathy from the committee.
After being challenged on the DWP's demonisation of benefit claimants through its references to "a something for nothing culture", Duncan Smith similarly sought to shift the blame, noting that it was "a minister" from the last government (Liam Byrne) who first referred to "shirkers" and "workers", to which the only appropriate reply is 'two wrongs don't make a right".
On Universal Credit, which was being claimed by just 2,150 people at the end of September, 997,850 short of the original April 2014 target of one million, he defiantly declared "there is no debacle" and denounced the "bogus nonsense" that had been spoken about the scale of IT writedowns. We learned that a mere £40.1m of IT assets had been written off (lower than £140m figure cited by the public accounts committee) but what Duncan Smith didn't mention is that officials expect a further £91m to be "rapidly amortised" (written off) over the next five years.
Challenged on whether he expected his target of moving all claimants onto Universal Credit (with the exception of 700,000 claiming employment and support allowance) by 2017, he could only again reply that he "believed" it would be. But after so many delays, few MPs are now willing to accept his assurances. For now, Duncan Smith can only claim 'success' by permanently shifting the goalposts. As one of his officials put it today, "it works for a limited population at this time."
