The former Tory leader claimed that the Coalition’s decision to cap benefit payments had driven 8,000 people to get a job
PA
Work Secretary Iain Duncan Smith was urged to apologise to the unemployed tonight after watchdogs rapped him for abusing statistics.
The former Tory leader claimed that the Coalition’s decision to cap benefit payments had driven 8,000 people to get a job.
But, after a complaint from the TUC, the UK Statistics Authority ruled his claim was not backed up by the facts.
TUC chief Frances O’Grady said: “The Government is causing hardship and worry to many who have done nothing to cheat the system and are desperate to work.
“He needs to apologise to those who cannot find jobs for misusing his department’s statistics in this way.”
New figures show benefit fraud accounts for just 0.7% of the welfare budget.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said: "Iain Duncan Smith is living in la-la land. His ideas don't work so he's now literally making up stories.
"For the third time in just six months, the head of the UK Statistics Authority has written to ministers to warn them about their misuse of statistics.
"They claimed the NHS Budget was rising when it had fallen, they claimed debt was falling when it's rising, and now they are making up stories about getting people off benefits and into work, when the truth is unemployment is rising.
"People's patience is wearing very thin, and they're getting a little sick and tired of a Tory-led Government that isn't just out of touch with the public - it's out of touch with reality."
Oxfam's Katherine Trebeck, policy and advocacy manager for the charity's UK poverty programme, said: "Not content with using rhetoric to stigmatise poor people the Government has now been caught misrepresenting the figures - this is beyond the pale.
"The fact is that the vast majority of people who are out of work would jump at the chance to take a job that paid them a wage they can afford to live on."
A Department of Work and Pensions spokesman said: "The Secretary of State has long held the position that the benefit cap would have an impact on the behaviour of claimants.
"As the minister for employment made clear in a recent interview, DWP staff and claimants are telling us the cap is impacting behaviour and leading to those affected finally entering the world of work."
Mirror
The former Tory leader claimed that the Coalition’s decision to cap benefit payments had driven 8,000 people to get a job.
But, after a complaint from the TUC, the UK Statistics Authority ruled his claim was not backed up by the facts.
TUC chief Frances O’Grady said: “The Government is causing hardship and worry to many who have done nothing to cheat the system and are desperate to work.
“He needs to apologise to those who cannot find jobs for misusing his department’s statistics in this way.”
New figures show benefit fraud accounts for just 0.7% of the welfare budget.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said: "Iain Duncan Smith is living in la-la land. His ideas don't work so he's now literally making up stories.
"For the third time in just six months, the head of the UK Statistics Authority has written to ministers to warn them about their misuse of statistics.
"They claimed the NHS Budget was rising when it had fallen, they claimed debt was falling when it's rising, and now they are making up stories about getting people off benefits and into work, when the truth is unemployment is rising.
"People's patience is wearing very thin, and they're getting a little sick and tired of a Tory-led Government that isn't just out of touch with the public - it's out of touch with reality."
Oxfam's Katherine Trebeck, policy and advocacy manager for the charity's UK poverty programme, said: "Not content with using rhetoric to stigmatise poor people the Government has now been caught misrepresenting the figures - this is beyond the pale.
"The fact is that the vast majority of people who are out of work would jump at the chance to take a job that paid them a wage they can afford to live on."
A Department of Work and Pensions spokesman said: "The Secretary of State has long held the position that the benefit cap would have an impact on the behaviour of claimants.
"As the minister for employment made clear in a recent interview, DWP staff and claimants are telling us the cap is impacting behaviour and leading to those affected finally entering the world of work."
Mirror
